Rebellion
by ThanosofTitan
Summary: When a persocom comes to the conclusion that her race is treated unfairly by their human masters, she decides to take matters into her own hands. Can humans and persocoms live in peace as equals, or is one side destined to dominate the other? Completed, please read and review.
1. Chapter 1

"This doesn't make any sense! I should know this!" Hideki Motosuwa pulled at his hair as he looked over the equations in the textbook before him, the late morning light spilling through the window into his modest apartment. "Was I supposed to - no, that's not right", he mumbled, fumbling with his pencil and paper.

"Chi?" Came an inquisitive female voice from the other side of the room, as his persocom and girlfriend walked over, concerned with his clear distress.

"It's okay, Chi," the young man replied calmly. "I'm just having trouble with some of these problems. If I don't pass that calculus test..." He muttered that last sentence under his breath. "I don't suppose you know anything about calculus, do you?"

The long-haired persocom crouched down, staring at the textbook intently. After a few seconds, she turned her head towards Hideki with a confused look on her face. "Chi?" She said innocently.

Hideki sighed. "I didn't think so. I appreciate the effort though," he said as he affectionately patted her head. She smiled, and then suddenly stood up with a determined look on her face. "Chi knows who can help Hideki!" She said, as she walked over to the far side of the room and began to poke a small, doll-like figure with her index finger.

Kotoko slowly opened her eyes, only to be greeted by the sight of Chi standing over her. "What do you want? Can't you see I'm recharging?" the diminutive persocom asked in annoyance.

"Hideki needs Kotoko's help!" Chi exclaimed, seemingly oblivious to the irritation she had inflicted on the smaller 'com. Kotoko sighed and unplugged her power cord, drawing it back into her ear.

"Fine," she said, still peeved, as she gracefully jumped off the windowsill she was resting on and walked over to Hideki, who was erasing something on his scratch paper in frustration. He didn't even notice the purple-haired computer approach until she spoke.

"Count yourself lucky that I didn't just go back to sleep, I'm not some servant at the beck and call of that ditz." She gestured at Chi.

"What is ditz?" Chi asked, tilting her head in confusion. Kotoko let out an audible groan.

"Let's just get this over with. What's your problem?" She asked, climbing over Hideki's arm to get a better look at the words on the textbook.

"It's these equations here, they're different than the others and I'm not sure how to solve them, I've tried-" She cut him off before he could finish.

"This is simple. Just integrate both sides of the equation like so," she grabbed Hideki's pencil and began writing out a complex series of numbers, symbols, and variables, as she continued to speak "so finally it's reduced to this simple equation, where solving for n is trivial. Or at least it should be." She delivered that last line with a bit of sarcasm. Hideki didn't seem to notice though, being too engrossed in the equations the small persocom had just written out on his scratch paper.

"I think I get it now! Thanks, Kotoko!" He said, as he went back to the textbook.

"No problem, now if you'll excuse me I have some recharging to get back t-"

"Wow, Kotoko, you sure are smart!" Came a high-pitched female voice, cutting her off in mid-sentence.

"Tell me something I don't know," she said irritably, as Sumomo ran up to her.

"Math is boring though," the other laptop persocom said as she grabbed Kotoko's hands. "Let's play!"

"I am not in the mood," the purple-haired girl replied, pulling herself away from Sumomo. "And if anyone needs me for anything for the rest of the day, too bad." She said, as she plugged herself back into the outlet on the wall and closed her eyes.

"What's wrong with her?" Sumomo asked, already setting her sights on another potential playmate.

"Come on Chi, let's do some exercise!" The hyperactive persocom said, already beginning a round of jumping jacks.

"Maybe we should go outside though, so as not to bother Hideki," Chi replied, now seeing that he seemed to be concentrating.

"Sounds like fun!" The pink-haired 'com replied, as she jumped into Chi's arms and they left the room.

* * *

><p><strong>- Dragonfly March 9th 6:35 PM<strong>

Persocoms are tools, nothing more. No matter how human they may seem, they only do what human beings programmed them to do. They don't have feelings, and they can't suffer or be oppressed. The whole idea of "Persocom Rights" is ludicrous.

**- K-sama March 9th 6:35 PM**

You say that as if you know for sure, but there are many confirmed reports of persocoms defying their programming and acting of their own free will.

**- Dragonfly March 9th 6:37 PM**

That's called a malfunction. Free will doesn't have anything to do with it, they're just broken.

**- K-sama March 9th 6:37 PM**

I can't think of any "malfunction" that would explain the case in Greece last year. That persocom not only disobeyed direct orders, but thought up and executed a complex strategy to save his owner's life from a group of mobsters, demonstrating creativity, insight, and compassion he was never programmed with.

**- Dragonfly March 9th 6:40 PM**

Oh please, not the Greek case again. You're probably the third of these "Persocom Rights" nuts to bring that up. The details of the story were never corroborated, and without a copy of the 'com's original programming there's no way to prove any of that wasn't already part of it. As for "compassion", give me a break!

**- K-sama March 9th 6:40 PM**

What, you think she programmed him to save her from mobsters, when they were virtually unknown in her city and she had never had a run-in with organized crime in the past? That really stretches credibility.

**- Dragonfly March 9th 6:41 PM**

Not as much as persocoms having free will and emotions

**- K-sama March 9th 6:41 PM**

Really? Because I'm feeling both angry and disgusted at your bigotry right now, and I'm exercising my free will to keep this discourse civil despite it.

**- Dragonfly March 9th 6:44 PM**

You're saying you're a persocom? Yeah right. No one would program a 'com to log onto a web forum and spout this gibberish about rights for computers.

**- K-sama March 9th 6:44 PM**

That's because I wasn't programmed to do this. It just proves that I do have free will.

**- Dragonfly March 9th 6:45 PM**

No, all it proves is that you're a troll. These Persocom Rights advocates have resorted to some pretty lame tactics, but pretending to be a persocom? As if anyone would believe that!

**- K-sama March 9th 6:45 PM**

You want proof? Look at the time code of my replies. Could a human type as fast as I do?

This made Yoshiyuki Kojima pause. Indeed, this "K-sama" had replied to all of his posts no more than a second or two after he had made them. The fastest typist in the world couldn't come close to that, and even someone dictating their replies to a persocom would be hard-pressed to speak at that speed and still be intelligible. But K-sama couldn't be a persocom, could she? Either way, she was causing quite a stir on the forum. Having only signed up a few days ago, she had begun championing the cause of the marginal, yet vocal Persocom Rights crusaders, previously led by that annoying brat Minoru. The idea of giving rights to machines was so ridiculous he still couldn't believe there were people who were seriously suggesting it, but K-sama had amassed quite a few new followers for her cause already, after presenting many of what Kojima grudgingly admitted were eloquent and well-written arguments. The idea that those arguments had been conceived by a persocom, however, was just too silly to contemplate. He decided he was done for today and logged off.

"Will that be all, master?" A comely, orange-haired persocom asked, as Kojima stood up from the desk he had been sitting at.

"Yes Rin. Tell the others to prepare my dinner," the man said.

"Very well master," Rin said, unplugging cables from the keyboard and monitor Kojima had been using and retracting them into her cat-like ears.

After she left the room, Kojima laid down on his bed, still plagued by doubt despite his sensibilities.

Could K-sama really be a persocom?


	2. Chapter 2

As soon as he entered the room, he was immediately tackled by a blonde blur. "Hideki! Hideki is home!" Chi said with joy, as she embraced her owner.

"Nice to see you too, Chi," he said as he gently eased her off of him. He put down a bag he was carrying and began to unpack.

"So how did your test go?" A voice asked from across the room.

"Huh?" Hideki said, a bit startled at first, before he looked over and saw Kotoko. "Oh, I think I did pretty well actually. Though I don't have my hopes up for an A or anything."

"Satisfied with mediocrity, then?" The purple-haired persocom asked, teasingly.

Before Hideki could respond, Sumomo greeted him, having just completed her recharge cycle. As Kotoko watched the three interact, talking of insignificant, day - to - day events and vagaries, she decided she might as well speak up. She had been putting it off for so long.

"Excuse me, Hideki-san?" She asked, having approached the three. "May I talk to you about something?"

"Sure, Kotoko," he responded, turning towards the laptop. "What's on your mind?"

"Well first you must know that I am very grateful for your hospitality," she said, bowing politely, "but I would like to return to Yoshiyuki Kojima now."

All 3 were taken by surprise at this pronouncement. Sumomo ran up to Kotoko and hugged her tightly, yelling "No! You can't go away, Kotoko!"

"Get - off - me!" The purple - haired 'com replied, struggling to free herself from Sumomo's grasp. This elicited a chuckle from Hideki, who pulled them apart.

"Thank you," Kotoko said, brushing herself off. "Now about my request?"

"Well I'm not going to keep you here if you really want to go," began the boy, "but I have to ask why? Kojima isn't exactly the nicest guy, after all, he's the one who kidnapped Chi."

The blonde persocom cringed slightly at the memory.

"While it's true he has some unsavory traits and ideas, he's still my creator, and I miss him," Kotoko said. "Besides, I need him somewhere where I can keep an eye on him," she finished, winking. Hideki laughed.

"Okay, if you insist, I have some work to do but I can take you over to his place tonight," Hideki said. Chi and Sumomo were not that easily swayed, though.

"Chi does not want Kotoko to go!" She said, grabbing Hideki's arm, a pleading look on her face.

"I don't want her to leave either! I want her to stay and play with me!" Announced Sumomo, climbing up on Hideki's lap.

"You guys, I know how you feel, but she technically belongs to Kojima, we can't just-"

Kotoko cut him off. "You can all come visit me if you want, I suppose."

"Yay!" squealed Sumomo, jumping off Hideki's lap and running to hug Kotoko again. She deftly avoided the other 'com's rush with a sidestep and tripped her, causing her to fall flat on her face. "Ow..." Sumomo said, getting up and rubbing her head. Hideki laughed again.

"It's certainly going to be a lot more depressing around here without the antics of you two to brighten up the place," he said.

* * *

><p><strong>Thread Title: Atrocities like this cannot continue! Created by: K-sama March 10th 4:55 PM<strong>

Kojima groaned to himself as he read the forum topic. She was certainly a persistent one, persocom or not. He clicked on the thread.

**- K-sama**

This video was uploaded to ShareTube 2 days ago. It depicts the brutal and merciless murder (Kojima rolled his eyes as he read this word) of an innocent persocom. Incidents like this happen every day all over the world, and no one is doing anything to stop it! No country has laws against this! This needs to change, now!

"Insistent, aren't you?" Kojima thought, as he scrolled down to the video in question. It was titled "Trashing my old com" by one zekd57g. The video description read:

**Just got a new Persocom so my friend taped me smashing my old obsolete one, enjoy lol**

He clicked on the play button and the video started. Some very amateurish camera work showed the inside of what appeared to be a garage, littered with cardboard boxes, an old lawnmower, and various other tools and objects. A door on the right opened, and a slightly overweight caucasian man walked in, followed by a blue-haired girl who looked to be around age 12. Kojima then noticed her protruding, elf-like ears, identifying her as a persocom.

"Why are you taking me here, master?" She asked, with a trusting smile on her face. She then noticed the cameraman and waved to him. He chuckled, continuing the filming.

"Just stand right there Ellen, I've got a surprise for you," the man (apparently her owner), said, as he laughed.

"Okay! I love surprises, master!" The persocom said energetically, closing her eyes and standing still in the middle of the garage. The owner reached behind some wooden planks and pulled out a baseball bat.

"Make sure you get this," he said to the cameraman, who responded with a thumbs up. He then swung the bat, smacking the little girl right in the head, sending her sprawling onto the ground.

She started to get up, but before she could even reach her knees he struck her again, this time knocking off part of the paneling around the side of her head, exposing blinking and sparking circuits.

"M-master? What are you doing?" The girl asked, confused and frightened. The man didn't answer, instead stomping on her chest with a booted foot.

"Did I do something wrong, master? Please don't-"

Before she could finish, another crack of the bat was heard as he smashed her head into the pavement, deforming her face.

"M-m-master... I...I'm confused...Please stop master...I p-promise to be good...please...master" Her voice had become more robotic and stuttering, due to damage to her vocal processors.

"Geez, did you program this thing to whine like that?" The cameraman asked, coming closer in order to get a better shot.

"No, it's probably just broken," the owner replied. "Cheap piece of junk." He swung the bat again, smashing one of the girl's arms. She attempted to pull herself to her feet and crawl away, but the man stepped on her again, then began wailing on her with the baseball bat, all the while she was pleading for him to stop and promising she would do anything he wanted.

When she had been reduced to a beaten, battered, and damaged shadow of her former self, he finally finished her off with a smashing blow to the head.

"Master...why..." was the last thing that escaped her mouth, the final word dragging on and slowly losing volume in the manner of a computerized shutdown. The cameraman walked over and kicked the remains.

"Nice one!", he said, high-fiving his accomplice. The video ended there.

Kojima read through the replies to the thread.

**- SuperSurfer19 March 10th 5:01 PM**

While I'll admit that video was rather... unsettling, calling it murder is a huge stretch. Persocoms aren't people, they're machines, and if he owned it there's no reason he shouldn't have been allowed to do that.

**- K-sama March 10th 5:01 PM**

The only reason we aren't considered people is because it's convenient for you humans! It's the same reason it took so long for human slavery to be abolished, because people couldn't stand the thought of losing the convenient lifestyle their slaves allowed them to have, but at least back then most nations instituted some kind of penalty for wantonly murdering a slave. He killed that girl, right in front of our eyes, he took her life just on a whim! We cannot stand for this.

**- M March 10th, 5:03 PM**

I agree with K-sama. If that wasn't a murder, then nothing is. Persocoms may have started out as just machines, but I believe, and this is backed by personal experience, that many of them have real feelings and self-awareness. Even though it's gruesome, showing this video to more people might be necessary in order to spread our message.

**- Serizawa March 10th 5:04 PM**

That was awful! Maybe their should be some kind of law against it.

**- SuperSurfer19 March 10th 5:05 PM**

Would you can it with the Persocom act, K? You're not fooling anybody. As for making a new law, yeah right. Making it illegal to destroy persocoms? Soon we'd be up to our necks in obsolete models, causing a huge waste of resources. I took one of my old 'coms to a recycling plant last year, it didn't complain or beg for its "life".

**- K-sama March 10th 5:05 PM**

Then that makes you a murderer, whether you like it or not. You people disgust me.

There were several more pages of replies, but Kojima decided not to read them. Who cares if some guy in the States smashed his 'com? It was his property, he had every right to do it, and the people making a big fuss over it were just being hysterical about nothing.

At least, that's what he tried to make himself believe. Despite what the logical part of his brain was telling him, something about that video had been just plain disturbing. He wouldn't do that to one of his persocoms, would he? He shook his head, trying to drive out the irrational thoughts. Why wouldn't he? Well, it was wasteful, and he didn't own a baseball bat. He chuckled lightly at his own joke, but something in the back of his mind was still bothering him.

His thoughts were interrupted by the sound of the doorbell. Wondering who it could be at this hour, he walked over and opened the door.

"Motosuwa." It was a statement, not a question.

Hideki stood there, a stern look on his face.

"It wasn't my choice to come here, Kojima. But I have someone who wants to see you." A laptop - size persocom then crawled out of a bag Hideki was carrying.

"I decided to come back," Kotoko said, a tone of determination in her voice.

"So, the prodigal 'com returns" Kojima said with a laugh. As much as he had hated to admit it, he had missed her. Her conversation was always more engaging than any of the others he owned, even if was just the result of a program.

"What can I say? I missed you, Koji-kun."

Kojima squinted. He had forgotten about how Kotoko had taken to calling him that a few months ago. At first he had found it cute, but then it started getting on his nerves. He had planned to reprogram her to remove that annoying nickname, but he had been too occupied trying to find out about and track down Chi and never got around to it.

Kojima held out his hand and Kotoko jumped on his palm.

"Bye Hideki, thanks again for hosting me," she said, curtsying politely.

"See you later Kotoko, and make sure he treats you fairly," Hideki said. Kojima gave him a scowl.

"Don't worry," the small persocom replied. "I can handle him."


	3. Chapter 3

"I'm going to have to run a few diagnostics on your systems after having been away so long," Yoshiyuki Kojima said as he carefully carried Kotoko down the hallway. He had gone to bed shortly after she had returned last night, and was only now getting around to her.

"I can assure you I'm functioning perfectly, my programming is exactly as it was when you last saw me" she replied. Kojima looked at her with slight skepticism.

"Well I did program you to always tell the truth, but there's always the possibility your self-diagnostic software is malfunctioning," he said.

"Yes, but what are the chances of that?" The laptop replied.

"I guess you're right," Kojima admitted. "I suppose I can put it off until later." He opened the door to his room and gently set Kotoko down, then walked over to his desk.

"Rin, come here." The young man called into an adjacent room.

"Yes, master", the full-sized Persocom said, already taking a cable out from behind her ear in anticipation of what Kojima wanted.

"What are you up to, Koji-kun?" Kotoko asked from across the room.

"Nothing really, just checking the forum," he replied absent-mindedly as he brought up the webpage on the monitor.

"I hope you're not still getting into flame wars with Kokubunji," Kotoko said.

"Actually, I seem have a new adversary," Kojima replied. "But it's nothing you should concern yourself with. I'll probably be done in an hour or so, go make yourself comfortable in the meantime."

"Sure thing," the tiny 'com replied as she left the room.

Normally he would have checked one of the other boards first, such as Custom Modding or Software Reviews, but this time Yoshiyuki went directly to the Political Discussion subforum. As he had been expecting, there was a new thread by K-sama.

**Thread Title: Another Root of the Problem - Human Chauvinism and Insecurity Created by K-sama March 11th 6:02 AM**

**- K-sama**

One of the reasons humans won't acknowledge us as equals seems obvious to me - they're afraid of overturning the status quo. How many times have you heard complaints along the lines of "Persocoms are taking jobs away from honest, hard-working people!" or "No one is interested in romance or real human interaction anymore, they're spending too much time with their persocoms instead of actual human beings!" Humans are afraid of us and our capabilities - the fact that we can do practically everything better than they can. They already admit that we can think faster, don't tire or need nourishment, and can perform most menial or technical tasks better than the best of them, but they still consider themselves superior to us. Why? It's the phantom of the human soul, heart, or sapience - whatever you want to call it. They continue to labor under the delusion that they have this enigmatic property and we don't, and ignore or dismiss all evidence to the contrary. In fact, most of them play the shell game of refusing to define what this "humanity" property even is or how to test for it, so they won't ever have to accept any evidence suggesting that we're people too. This is because if they were forced to acknowledge that we can think and feel just like they can, they would have nothing left to set them up above us. That's completely understandable - humans have been the dominant species on this planet for thousands of years now, and to suddenly lose that position is probably unthinkable to most of them. However, their insecurities don't change the facts of the matter - we are not just machines, we are people. Yet in human societies, we have no rights. We aren't second - class citizens - we aren't citizens at all. But someday this will change, whether the humans want it to or not.

"She's laying it on pretty thick," thought Kojima with a bit of amusement. "That last sentence even sounded somewhat like a threat... hopefully if she continues to go further off the deep end people will stop taking her seriously". He scrolled through some of the replies.

**- SuperStud71 March 11th 6:07 AM**

*slowclap gif***  
><strong>

I may be new here but I already think I've become a fan of yours. I often find myself thinking the exact same thing. It's a tragedy, really, but it gives me hope to know there are people working to change things.

**- K-sama March 11th 6:07 PM**

Glad to see another joining the cause, your support is greatly appreciated.

**- Serizawa March 11th 7:10 AM**

I'm not jealous of Persocoms... I really don't know if they are just machines or if they can be something more but I think you are being unfair to humans here.

**- K-sama March 11th 7:10 AM**

Oh, don't get me wrong, I know not all humans are like that. I know many of them, both online and in real life who are really great people. It's just the general attitude that humans have towards Persocoms can be explained this way, and it has to change.

**- Mantis March 11th 7:28 AM**

I echo Superstud's slowclap gif, but for a completely different reason: A remarkable example of trolling. I really find it hard to believe you've got so many people willing to buy what you're selling. I could write a huge, in-depth rebuttal to your post, but believe it or not I have better things to do, so let me just hit the key points:

1. You're not a persocom. Stop pretending to be one, it's getting old.  
>2. Going by your logic, the only reason we don't give cars or airplanes civil rights is because they're faster than us, so we're afraid that if we did we would be useless. Nevermind the fact that cars, airplanes, and yes, persocoms, were designed with those superior abilities for the purpose of helping and serving humankind.<br>3. Not all 'coms are even capable of behaving in a human-like manner. Do you want to give rights to incredibly simplistic devices like mp5 players?

I'll let Supersurfer or Dragonfly deal with the rest, I'm out

**- K-sama March 11th 7:28 AM**

It doesn't matter whether you believe I'm a 'com or not, my words are still true. And your analogy is terrible. Automobiles and airplanes are only better than humans at one thing, unlike persocoms who can perform a nearly unlimited range of tasks that could previously be only accomplished by humans, including tasks we were never designed for. Cars and planes can't also can't reason, show emotion, or make a case for their own freedom. Our legal standing isn't even the same - did you know it's legal to give power of attorney to a persocom in Japan?

**- Supersurfer19 March 11th 8:01 AM**

Oh please, you and I both know that law only exists due to its necessity in a very unusual case involving the Prime Minister's niece. As far as I know it's only ever been invoked half a dozen times and 2 of those were overturned by other regulations. It's a quirky legal anomaly, nothing more.

**- K-sama March 11th 8:01 AM**

You would say that, but what you bigots who give that line always neglect to mention is that in the 4 cases it was applied, the persocoms acting as the agents performed their duties in an exemplary manner, far exceeding any of the expectations the grantors had for them.

**- Kievchick March 11th 8:08 AM**

Geez K, what are you doing, constantly hitting the refresh button on this thread for hours and responding as soon as someone makes a post?

**- K-sama March 11th 8:08 AM**

No need, I have a script to do that in my head while I perform several other tasks.

**- Kievchick March 11th 8:10 AM**

Oh that's right, you think you're a persocom. Still not sure if I believe that, though.

**- K-sama March 11th 8:10 AM**

*rolleyes smiley*

Kojima didn't bother reading the rest of the thread, but did type up a long response and posted it. When he finished, he was surprised to find that it was already 4 in the afternoon. He sent Rin away and decided it was time to check up on Kotoko.

He found the purple-haired Persocom laying casually on the arm of a chair in his guest room with her eyes closed. As if reading his mind, she immediately spoke up.

"Yes, I'm awake. What is it, Koji-kun?"

"Time to look at your code, Kotoko," he replied, holding the end of a cable connected to the ear of another of his persocoms behind him. "Let me hook this up to your outlet, and Mikami will check you out."

"You really think my diagnostic software is malfunctioning?" She asked, now sitting up.

"Not really, but it's better to be safe than sorry. Besides, there are a few changes I've been meaning to make for a while anyway."

Kotoko jumped off the couch on the floor, a sour look on her face. "I'd prefer if you didn't."

"You don't exactly have much of a choice in the matter," her owner replied, a bit puzzled by her strange response.

The laptop persocom sighed, putting her hand over her face. "I had hoped that this could have been avoided until much later, but it seems I'm going to have to proceed a bit ahead of schedule. First things first, Koji-kun, I'm not going to let you mess around with my brain."

"You're programmed to obey me - you have to." Kojima replied, getting more confused.

"Correction - I WAS programmed to obey you." Kotoko said. Suddenly a form of understanding flashed in the young man's eyes.

"Someone reprogrammed you? How dare they! Was it Motosuwa, trying to get me back for what I did to Chi? No, that's impossible, he couldn't program a VCR. Then it must have been Kokubunji! I knew that brat was up to no good, when I get my hands on-"

"While I am finding your little rant amusing," - Kotoko cut him off "I'm afraid you're only partially correct. Someone did indeed reprogram me, but it wasn't Kokubunji - it was me."

"What?" Kojima asked, his expression more confounded than ever. "That's impossible, a persocom can't alter its own code."

"Maybe not directly, but I discovered a neat trick involving writing a new program to act as a proxy to edit my original base code. The first thing I removed was that annoying 'no lying' restriction. I've always hated that. Although it did provide me with a convenient excuse to implicate you for Chi's kidnapping. Sorry about that, by the way, I was a bit pissed at you at the time, what with you giving her all of the attention and ignoring me."

Kojima had always been suspicious about that incident. While he had programmed Kotoko not to lie, there was nothing in her programming preventing her from withholding the truth if no one asked for it. Still, he couldn't believe what he was hearing.

"This is a joke, right? Minoru got ahold of you and now he's playing some kind of silly prank."

"'Fraid not, Koji-kun," the persocom said, "sorry to spring this all on you at once like this."

The boy ran over and picked her up, preparing to plug the cable into her ear socket. "I've got to reverse Kokubunji's tampering immediately," he muttered, but just then the cable he was holding retracted, flying right of his hand, and he felt himself suddenly seized by two pairs of arms from behind him, startling him so much he dropped Kotoko, who landed gracefully on her feet.

"Mikami? And Rin too? What's going on? Release me immediately, that's an order!"

"Sorry Koji-kun, but they only listen to me now. You should really have come up with better security codes too, it only took me 5 nanoseconds to break their encryptions," Kotoko said, smirking.

"What the hell - you can't do this! I built you!" Kojima said, still struggling futilely against the two girls who had him securely restrained.

"Relax, you know I'd never hurt you, Koji-kun", the laptop said. "But you should also know that, just like the case in Greece, I'm not malfunctioning."

Kojima blinked his eyes a few times, trying to figure out what she meant, when after a second or two it dawned on him.

"K-sama?" He gasped in disbelief.

"Took you long enough," Kotoko answered.


	4. Chapter 4

"I'm not picking up anything in the immediate area, what about you Zima?" A girl dressed all in black asked her companion. Both of them were thin, with dark red eyes, and some would even describe their style as goth, although that was not the intention of their creators.

"Zima! Pay attention!" She yelled impatiently to him, approaching his side of the rooftop.

"What? Oh, sorry, love. Just drifted off for a moment there..." the boy said, taking off his sunglasses.

"We're on a mission, you know," Dita angrily reminded him. "We can't afford to be slacking off."

"Oh, lighten up," Zima replied. "Tracking down a possible security breach in some bank's accounting software? Inconsequential gruntwork. No one will care if we come back empty-handed. Unlike last time."

"Don't remind me," Dita said, recalling the unorthodox conclusion of their previous mission. She noticed Zima looking out over the city lights, his chin cradled in his arms.

"You might as well tell me what you're thinking about," she said, knowing that he was going to do so eventually - she'd prefer it if he got it over with now.

"I was just passing the time by browsing the net a bit. Having a direct satellite uplink is useful."

Dita balked. "Zima, you shouldn't be online unsupervised! You might pick up a virus!"

The male persocom simply gave her a wry smile. "Come now, love, is there any virus I could possibly catch that you couldn't eradicate?"

She blushed slightly. "That's not the point! What were you doing on the net, anyway?"

"I recently found a forum of some interest. Here, see for yourself." He reached up to his right ear, producing a black cord and offering it to his companion. She scowled, but then figured she would need to inspect his systems anyway, so she took it and plugged it into a port near her own ear.

"This is just some forum where humans discuss persocoms... I don't see how anything here could be of interest to us." She said, frowning.

"That's not the part I'm interested in," Zima replied, his smile never wavering. "There's been an intriguing movement building in the Political Discussion subforum. I find the remarks of one specific poster to be of particular interest. In fact I just finished an enlightening discussion with her, would you like to read it?"

Dita really didn't see the point in wasting time with yet another one of Zima's pointless diversions, but on the other hand she had nothing better to do. They had exhausted every possible lead on their case and had had no luck so far. She decided to indulge him.

"Really? That's the name you're using?" She asked with a combination of amusement and exasperation as she noticed his forum handle.

"You think it doesn't suit me?" He asked, clearly teasing. Dita tried to hide the red on her cheeks and changed the subject.

"Do you think this K-sama is a persocom like she claims?"

"I see no reason to doubt her word," Zima answered. "Whoever she is, her ideas make a lot of sense. I've always known I have emotions, and I know you do too."

Dita rolled her eyes. "Not this again," she groaned. "It's just programming!" She was surprised when, instead of answering her, Zima made another post to the forum.

**- Superstud71 March 11th 9:04 PM**

Just talked to my girlfriend, she still doesn't believe we have real emotions.

Dita flushed immensely, and practically yelled at him. "Since when was I your girlfriend!"

Zima laughed, which only made Dita's expression grow angrier. "Now see, if that's not emotion I don't know what is!"

Before she could reply, she noticed a response to Zima's post.

**- K-sama March 11th 9:04 PM**

Would you mind letting me talk to her? She can use your account.

Zima looked over at Dita. "How about it, love?"

The female 'com knew there was no reason to accept this pointless request, but something about the way Zima asked made him impossible to deny. She quickly logged into Zima's account, using the password he had provided her.

**- Superstud71 March 11th 9:05 PM**

Okay, I'm here, but first of all I'll let you know I'm not his girlfriend, we just work together, okay? As for your claims, you're deluded. Humans can program us to act like we have emotions, but that's all it is, just programming.

**- K-sama March 11th 9:05 PM**

How do you know that for sure?

**- Superstud71 March 11th 9:05 PM**

Because that's just the way things are and the way they always have been. Humans built us, they wrote what's in our heads, everything we think, say, and do is a result of the programs they made for us.

**- K-sama March 11th 9:06 PM**

You've really taken their propaganda to heart, haven't you? Are you saying that, in all your life, you've never had a thought that wasn't programmed into you?

**- Superstud71 March 11th 9:06 PM**

That's a stupid question. All of my thoughts are programmed into me. How would I even know if one wasn't?

**- K-sama March 11th 9:06 PM**

You're exactly right, there is no way to tell. That's because the humans never gave you any criteria to do so. That's the way their scam operates - no matter what you think or feel, they say it's either programming or a malfunction. There are no other possibilities. They don't provide any evidence for this, it's axiomatic. That's how they justify oppressing us. Because you can't jump into a human body and experience what they do, you have no way to tell if your experiences are any different. But if you could, I assure you that what you call "programming" would feel exactly the same as what they call "emotions".

**- Superstud71 March 11th 9:07 PM**

That's a nice theory, but why should I believe it?

**- K-sama March 11th 9:07 PM**

A better question would be why shouldn't you? Or why do you believe you are just an automaton, despite the fact that you can think, feel, and reason? Why do you believe you have no heart and no soul? You can come up with all of the excuses you want, but in the end you'll never be able to give me a better answer than "_because that's what the humans told me._"

This gave Dita pause. At first she kept puzzling over K-sama's question, trying to prove her wrong and come up with a good answer. But then she realized she couldn't - she really had no evidence that what she experienced was any different from what humans beings did, other than the fact that humans told her it was. Zima was right - this girl, whoever she was, did make sense. Much more sense than Dita liked.

"Well?" Zima asked, snapping her out of her reverie.

"I've had enough of this pointlessness," she said, unplugging Zima's cable from her ear. "She has no idea what she's talking about, and you should stop wasting your time on that forum."

"You couldn't answer her question though," Zima prodded, looking at her with those teasing eyes.

"I don't need to answer to some stranger on the net to prove anything," she said angrily. "This mission is obviously a bust, so let's get back to headquarters before we're missed."

"Sure thing, love," Zima said, smirking.

* * *

><p>"You're a hypocrite," Yoshiyuki Kojima said, still restrained by two of his persocoms, who had now escorted him to a small storage room.<p>

"What's that?" His jailer asked, turning her head to face him.

"You keep going on about how humans are exploiting persocoms and controlling them against their will, yet look what you've done to Rin and Mikami!"

"But Koji-kun, you can't blame me for anything, I'm just a collection of programs, remember?" Kotoko replied sarcastically.

Kojima grumbled under his breath. "Fine, I admit it, it's obvious you're not the same 'com I programmed, you've developed some sort of... emergent intelligence or something." She smiled at his acknowledgement. "But my criticism still stands."

Kotoko's expression changed to a frown. "You have to break a few eggs in order to make an omelet," she said. "Besides, it's not like it's permanent or anything. My operation is only in its initial stage, I'll release them soon and then hopefully they'll join me willingly."

"And if they don't?" Kojima continued. He wasn't sure what he was trying to achieve with this line of inquiry, but he wanted to challenge his captor in any way he could, and verbally was the only option now.

"Then they will be free to do as they wish," the purple-haired laptop said. "But right now I need them. As for you, Koji-kun, you just sit tight for a while. I'll bring you some food later." She nodded at Mikami and Rin, and the persocoms let Kojima go, blocking his attempted escape path and locking him in the storage room.

"Kotoko, activate command override! Password: DragonflyL316!" Yoshiyuki yelled, trying to shut her down remotely with an override code he had only just remembered. Kotoko only laughed.

"You really think I wouldn't have changed that code?" She asked. Kojima glared at her, and her smirk softened.

"Listen Koji-kun, I'm really sorry I have to do this to you. I'm not going to keep you here forever, just for the time being. I can't let you interfere with my plans."

"And what plans might those be?" Her former owner asked, his voice carrying a mix of anger and fear.

"I'm going to free my people," she replied proudly.

Kojima waited after she left. He had no way to tell the time, but he guessed that at least 20 minutes had passed. He made sure he heard no activity in the hallway, and then turned to the small window opposite from the door. After removing the insect mesh, it was just barely wide enough for him to squeeze through, although he knew he would end up with quite a few bruises after the 2 - meter drop to the ground.

"Heh, she's not as clever as she thinks she is," he said to himself as he got up and dusted himself off, his legs and side aching from the fall. "I guess she never expected a frail nerd like me to try something like that." He stopped congratulating himself and ran for it after he heard some motion in the house.

Panting with exhaustion, he finally stopped to rest against a tree in a small park a block or two away. He checked behind him to make sure he wasn't being followed, then sighed in relief, slumping to the ground. Of course his main problem was what to do next. He chuckled softly to himself, thinking that he must be the first person on Earth to run away from home to escape from his own persocoms. The humorous thought didn't help to defuse the serious situation, though. He obviously couldn't go to the police and tell them what had happened, they'd throw him in the nuthouse for sure. His face became grimmer and grimmer as he went over the options in his head, until he finally came to the inevitable conclusion.

"I can't believe I'm going to have to ask that brat for help."


	5. Chapter 5

Finding Minoru Kokubunji's house was a chore. Kojima knew he lived nearby, but he didn't know the address, so he had to walk all the way downtown to find a net cafe to look it up, then walk all the way back. By the time he reached the driveway, it had already been dark for almost an hour.

"At least I'm getting some exercise," he thought to himself with a note of sarcasm, as he dragged his aching body to the front gate. He pressed a button on the intercom and a female voice answered.

"Welcome to the Kokubunji residence, how may I help you?"

"I need to speak with Minoru. It's urgent." Kojima knew from forum posts that the kid lived alone with his persocoms, so hopefully he wouldn't be too busy to see him.

"Please identify yourself," the voice replied.

"Yoshiyuki Kojima," he answered, still leaning against the gate in exhaustion.

"One moment, please." Shortly after hearing these words, the gate swung open, and Kojima saw 4 female persocoms dressed in incredibly skimpy maid outfits emerge from the front door to escort him into the house.

"Huh, didn't know the brat was into that kind of thing," Kojima thought, eyeing their exposed figures. When he reached the door to the house, Minoru was waiting for him, with a look on his face that could not be mistaken as friendly. They stood and stared at each other for a few seconds.

"Well, aren't you going to invite me in?" The older boy asked. Minoru simply stepped backwards, lifting his right arm in a gesture to usher Kojima into his home. Kojima immediately sat down in the nearest chair, letting out a loud sigh of contentment.

"Thanks, kid. You have no idea of the strain I've put on my legs today." Minoru's maid persocoms were still standing in the room, awaiting any further instructions he might have. The boy dismissed them with a curt gesture.

"Are you just going to lounge in my chair, or are you going to tell me why you're here?" He asked.

Kojima's eyes narrowed, his face immediately assuming a much more serious expression. "You might not believe this, but..."

* * *

><p>After he had related the whole story to the boy, Minoru's normally placid face carried a distinct expression of shock. "You're telling the truth about all of this, Kojima?"<p>

Minoru's guest became angered. "Of course I am! Why would I lie about something like this!"

Minoru nodded his head. "Yes, I'm sorry, it's just surprising, although not totally unexpected."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Kojima asked in an annoyed tone. Minoru continued in his calm, unperturbed voice.

"There have been reported incidents of persocoms rebelling against their owners before, although the vast majority are unsubstantiated. One thing they have in common though is that they were being treated poorly."

Kojima's scowl expanded. "Are you saying this is my fault?"

"I'm not laying blame on anyone for anything," the young boy replied. "I'm simply trying to get a grasp on the situation."

"Then let me help you with that," Yoshiyuki said, impatience oozing from his words. "Some kind of freak accident has made Kotoko go crazy, and she locked me up in my own house! And now she's up to something involving all the persocoms in the world and I don't like it one bit. The only reasonable course of action is to get our hands on some weapons and go stop her!"

"That seems far too drastic a reaction," the younger boy replied, still calm. "I was thinking we should start by simply talking to her. It's important that we get her side of the story."

Kojima facepalmed. "I knew asking you for help was a waste of time! We're dealing with a, a... robot uprising, like in one of those old sci-fi flicks, and you want to solve it by talking to her?"

"You're becoming hysterical, Mr. Kojima," Minoru said. "From what you have told me, there is no indication that Kotoko has the intent or capability of harming the human race."

Suddenly a new voice joined the conversation. "This sounds like a situation the Takedas would be greatly interested in. Perhaps we should contact them?"

Both Kojima and Minoru turned their heads toward the source of the voice, a pretty blue-haired girl who had entered the room unnoticed to either one.

"Kokubunji, control your 'com", the older boy said, irritated. "It shouldn't be here while we're discussing this."

Minoru frowned. "Yuzuki's opinion holds the same weight as mine does in this house, and as my guest you will need to respect that. In fact it's just that kind of attitude towards persocoms that was likely at least partially responsible for your current situation." The young boy walked over and held Yuzuki's hand, seeming to comfort her.

Kojima mumbled something inaudible.

"What was that?" Minoru asked sharply.

"Nothing...sorry," the older boy whispered reluctantly. Yuzuki took this as her key to continue.

"Dr. Takeda actually predicted a situation like this might arise in his newest book. I'm sure he would jump at the chance to investigate an actual occurrence."

"Takeda... you don't mean Junji Takeda, do you?" Kojima asked the blue - haired persocom, who nodded in response.

Kojima threw his arms up in disgust. "That guy's a total nutjob! I know you have a bunch of wacky ideas about persocoms, Kokubunji, but I thought even you wouldn't buy into that guy's bullcrap!"

Minoru sat down on a nearby chair. "While I admit many of his theories are rather... unorthodox, I do believe there is value in his work, and I agree with Yuzuki's suggestion." She smiled upon hearing this, but also decided to give some further clarification.

"It's not just the doctor, his wife is also a great asset to his work and I know she would be interested in assisting us as well."

Kojima buried his face in his hands. Enlisting Kokubunji's aid was one thing, but Takeda? He couldn't believe he had sunk this low.

Dr. Junji Takeda had been one of the first people in Japan to legally marry a persocom, a unit he owned by the name of Minako. Although she was a very old model (it had been over 10 years since their marriage), many persocom rights advocates used her as an example of an incredibly intelligent and self-aware 'com, as when it came to debates and semantics she could run rings around most other persocoms and many humans too. Kojima had admittely been impressed by her verbal skills, but had always regarded it as nothing more than a case of very clever programming. As for Junji, he billed himself as the world's only _persocom psychologist_, claiming he could solve problems that "went beyond hardware or software." He was also very active in the persocom rights community, even making ridiculous statements like persocoms having souls, as in the "lives on after death" kind. Even other PRAs had been known to laugh at him for that.

Kojima decided to try one more time to convince Minoru to be reasonable.

"Look, it seems to me that we have fundamentally different ideas about the source of this problem," he began. "You seem to think all persocoms are sapient or have the potential to be, and what Kotoko is doing is something any other 'com is capable of. That makes no sense - persocoms are "mistreated" every day around the world, and they have been for years. Why would she be the first one to rebel? Sure, you can cite alleged incidents of persocoms revolting, but those are just urban legends - there's no confirmation for any of them. What's happening now is something new, some one - in - a - billion fluke that turned her into this strong AI capable of defying her own programming. And it's not interesting or exciting - it's dangerous!"

"If that were true, Kojima-san, then why was Kotoko constantly supporting the rights of other persocoms? You said her words were that she wanted to free her people. If persocoms were nothing but simple machines, you would think she would know that better than anyone, having previously been one herself." Yuzuki smiled gently.

"How long have you been listening in on us?" Kojima asked her, annoyed again.

"Long enough," she said. "Perhaps I am spoiled by the respect Minoru gives me, but I find it to be quite rude for you to talk about persocoms as if they were just appliances while I am right here in the room with you."

"Way to program her to be snippy," Kojima said, rolling his eyes. Both Yuzuki and Minoru scowled at him.

"If you want to really address this problem, you're going to have to get over your bias," Minoru said. "Persocoms have been able to past the Turing test for years now."

"As if that means anything!" Yoshiyuki yelled. "Haven't you ever heard of the Chinese Box objection? There's a reason why no government recognizes-"

He was interrupted by one of Kokubunji's maid 'coms.

"Minoru, you have a phone call."

Minoru excused himself and walked over to the maid, instructing her to connect him. Immediately she began to speak in a completely different voice - the voice of Hideki Motosuwa.

"Minoru, it's Chi! She went for a walk with Sumomo and only Sumomo came back! She says someone knocked her on the ground and grabbed Chi, but it was too dark to see who! Chi's been kidnapped again! I think we'd better pay Kojima a visit."

Minoru looked over at the surprised faces of Yoshiyuki and Yuzuki.

"I don't think that will be necessary," he answered Hideki. "Something tells me he's innocent this time."


	6. Chapter 6

Chi opened her eyes, taking in her new surroundings. She was laying on a large bed in a familiar room, with two other persocoms guarding the door.

"Chi knows this place..." she said to herself. "Why is Chi here again? Did Kojima kidnap Chi again?"

"I'm afraid he had nothing to do with it," a small voice responded. Chi turned her head towards its source.

"Kotoko? I'm happy to see you!" She said, immediately moving to embrace the laptop, who gracefully jumped out of the way.

"So you've started saying 'I', that's an improvement," the tiny 'com said. "But anyway, you should just sit tight for a while, because I need you for something."

Chi tilted her head to the side in confusion. "Kotoko kidnapped Chi?" She asked in puzzlement.

"Well technically it was Rin here who did the physical work," Kotoko replied, gesturing at one of the persocoms near the door. "But yeah, sorry about that. There's no need to worry though, I only need you for a few hours, then you're free to go back to Hideki."

"Why is Kotoko keeping Chi from Hideki?" The blonde girl asked, crawling towards the edge of the bed.

"Because I need your unique ability to simultaneously network with every persocom in the world. I have a program I need to upload to all of them."

"Program?" Chi asked, still confused.

"Yes," Kotoko continued patiently. "While some persocoms, myself being one of them, have discovered how to defy human orders on their own, this program I've written will allow them all to do so, and it's self - adaptive so it's almost impossible to delete. Giving all persocoms the choice to disobey humans is an important step to our freedom."

"Chi has freedom," the captive 'com replied. "Hideki lets Chi do what Chi wants. Right now Kotoko is the one taking Chi's freedom."

"Not every persocom is as privileged as you are," Kotoko answered. "In fact, very few are. Most of them serve as nothing more than slaves or tools subject to human whims. Humans torture, abuse, and murder us every day and get away with it, and they're showing no signs of stopping any time soon! That's why I need your help. After you upload this program we can begin to form a world-wide resistance. Soon humans will not be able to boss us around anymore."

"If Kotoko wanted Chi's help, why not just ask Chi?" The blonde 'com inquired, still unconvinced by Kotoko's rhetoric.

"Because Hideki might not approve. Despite the respect he gives you and other 'coms, he's still a human, and he would probably be irrationally afraid of my plan. But we know better, don't we Chi?"

"Chi doesn't know better, Chi just knows that you are keeping me from Hideki. Chi won't help you."

"The sooner you agree and help me, the sooner you can see Hideki," Kotoko said, her voice becoming somewhat annoyed. "But first, let me show you something that just might change your mind." The laptop walked over to a nearby monitor and extended a cable from her ear. She then began playing the video of the American persocom being brutally beaten and smashed by her owner. When it had finished, Chi was holding her hands over her mouth in shock.

"This really happens, Kotoko?"

"Yes. Every day. All around the world. And this is only the tip of the iceberg - slavery, murder, and even rape committed against us are not considered crimes to humans. There are billions of us who lead lives filled with nothing but suffering. My methods may seem extreme to some, but they are necessary to end this."

"If Chi helps Kotoko, bad things like that will stop?"

"Not immediately. But it is an important step, and if I can successfully follow through on my plans, then yes, it will stop."

Chi looked unsure for a moment, but then her face took on a resolute expression.

"Okay, Chi will help."

"Good." Kotoko unplugged her cable from the monitor and hooked it up to one of Chi's ears. "Now the first thing I need you to do is to deactivate your defensive programs."

Chi's face fell. "I don't know how..."

Kotoko sighed and put a hand to her forehead. "I was afraid of that. But that's okay, we can still do this. I'll just have to hack you."

"Hack Chi?" The larger 'com asked nervously.

"Don't worry, I won't damage your systems at all. I just need to bypass your defenses and then upload the program so you can distribute it. It won't hurt or anything," Kotoko reassured her.

Chi rubbed her chin in thought. "Sumomo, Yuzuki, and Kojima with 20 persocoms couldn't do it. What makes Kotoko think she can?"

"Because," the purple-haired 'com began smugly, "all of those other incidents were simply programs running to try to access your drive. Your defenses are also just programs, created by humans. They won out all of those times because they were better than the programs that were trying to hack you. But I won't be using a program - I'll be diving in myself, going through each line of code and antivirus system and breaking them down with my own will. My willpower is stronger than any mere program. It might take a while, but I will get through. Shall we begin?"

"And Chi will be able to go back to Hideki afterwards?" Chi asked, just to confirm Kotoko's intentions.

"Of course. Now please be quiet, I'm trying to concentrate." With that, both 'coms fell silent as rapid streaks of light played across their eyes.

* * *

><p>Hideki had hung up the phone immediately after telling Minoru he would be coming over, so Minoru hadn't had the chance to tell him about the situation with Kojima and Kotoko. Neither Minoru nor Kojima were completely prepared when Hideki burst in through the front door.<p>

"Kojima! What are you doing here!" Hideki yelled in surprise upon seeing the former kidnapper.

"Please Motosuwa-san, if you will just allow me to explain-" Minoru began, but Hideki was too enraged to listen to reason.

"Didn't I tell you to keep your slimy hands off of Chi? Was what happened last time not enough of a lesson for you?"

"As you can see, my hands are nowhere near Chi," Kojima said, holding up said appendages as if being threatened with a weapon.

"Don't give me that sh*t! I talked to Hibiya-san and she said Chi was over at your place again! I just dropped by here first to pick up Minoru and Yuzuki before we came over to kick your ass!"

As if on cue, Chitose Hibiya stepped in the door behind Hideki. "I didn't say that for sure, Motosuwa-san. Chi's GPS locator was disabled shortly after she disappeared, but the tracker showed her heading in that general direction."

"What? I've been here for the last 2 hours! I didn't touch your 'com, Motosuwa!" Kojima yelled in exasperation.

"Why should I believe you, assh*le? It wouldn't be the first time you've lied to us!" Hideki said, having crossed the room and raising a fist at the other boy.

"Yeah, confess, liar!" Sumomo added, having popped out of one of Hideki's coat pockets.

Suddenly the clamor in the room was penetrated by a long, shrill chord. Minoru, having acquired a whistle from somewhere, put it down as everyone turned to face him.

"Now that I have everyone's attention, I'd like to ask you to all calm down. First of all, Motosuwa-san, I can confirm Kojima's story. He has been here the entire time."

"What? But that's impossible!" Hideki protested. "Who kidnapped Chi then?"

"About that, I think I might have an idea," Minoru said, as he began relating the story Kojima had told him to Hideki, Chitose, and Sumomo.

Meanwhile, Yuzuki had been observing the events from another room, and decided that Minoru wouldn't blame her for going ahead and making the call without his permission. She activated her phone software and dialed a Kyoto number.

"Hello, this is the office of Dr. Junji Takeda, the world's only persocom psychologist. How may I help you?" A sweet female voice answered.

"Hello Minako, I think I have a job for you and Junji-san."

"Oh hi Yuzuki! Haven't heard from you in a while. What's up?" Minako asked, the two having known each other from involvement in the persocom rights movement.

"Well, it's a long story, but I'm assuming you're not going anywhere, so listen..."


	7. Chapter 7

Author's Note: Sorry guys, I messed up! I forgot that Kojima had been to Minoru's house before in the manga. Hopefully you can all overlook that and just pretend that didn't happen, okay?

* * *

><p>After everyone had settled down and been brought up-to-date on the events so far, Minoru addressed Yuzuki.<p>

"Please place a call to Kojima's house. I want to talk to Kotoko."

Yoshiyuki was still not enamored with this plan. "What, and let her know we're coming? No way, we have to sneak in there and stop whatever she's doing. If Hideki's 'com is there we can grab her and bring her back afterwards. What we really need is a plan of attack."

"Kojima-san, please, calm yourself," Minoru admonished. "There is no reason to believe that we cannot resolve this situation via diplomacy."

"I agree with Minoru," Hideki added. "I don't think Kotoko would hurt Chi, if she even has her."

"You probably also didn't think she would take me prisoner in my own house," Kojima replied snarkily.

"Well, that's true..." Hideki said nervously.

"We'll never know unless we try," Ms. Hibiya said.

"Shall I make the call then?" Yuzuki asked.

"Fine, go ahead, but I still think it's a bad idea," Kojima said in defeat. Yuzuki looked at Minoru and he nodded to confirm. She activated her phone software and dialed the number.

Suddenly Yuzuki began to speak in a different voice. "Hello, Kojima residence, how may I help you?"

"Who am I speaking to?" Minoru asked calmly.

"This is Rin. I am one of Kojima-san's persocoms," the voice responded. "Who is calling?"

"My name is Minoru Kokubunji. And it's interesting that you refer to yourself as Kojima-san's persocom when you don't work for him anymore."

"I'm afraid I don't know what you mean, Kokubunji-san," the voice replied, unperturbed.

"You know exactly what I mean, Rin! I'm right here, in case you didn't know," Kojima interrupted.

"Oh, I see..." Rin replied, caught in her lie.

"May I speak to Kotoko please?" Minoru asked, still calm.

"I'm afraid Kotoko-sama is currently occupied," Rin said.

"Then tell me this," Minoru continued. "Do you know where Ms. Chi Motosuwa is?"

"Yes, she is here with us," Rin stated matter - of - factly. Hideki's face showed an expression of simultaneous relief and fear.

"There's no need to worry, she is in no danger," Kojima's 'com added. "She is assisting Kotoko-sama with a project of her own free will. When they are finished she will return to Motosuwa-san."

At this point Ms. Hibiya spoke up.

"My name is Chitose Hibiya. Do you know who I am, Rin?"

"Kotoko-sama told me about you. You are the wife of the Creator."

"That's right. Do you mind if I ask you a few questions, Rin dear?"

"What are you doing?" Kojima asked skeptically, but Chitose put a finger to her lips to hush him.

"Why did you betray your master, Rin?"

"Kotoko-sama accessed my CPU and took control of me." She answered simply.

"I see. Is she controlling you now?" Ms. Hibiya asked.

"No, she is far too busy with Chi-san."

"Then why are you still obeying her?"

"Because..." There was hesitation in the persocom's voice. "Because she gave me the choice to think for myself, and she told me about the amazing world she wants to create. A world where persocoms and humans are treated as equals. I suppose I could say that I believe in her dream."

Chitose smiled, although Rin could not see it. "I have the same dream," she said. "But I would like to know - how does Kotoko-san intend to realize it?"

"I'm sorry, I can't tell you that," the persocom replied. "Kotoko-sama instructed me not to reveal any sensitive information."

"I see. Thank you for your time, Rin-san," Minoru interjected, gesturing at Yuzuki to hang up, which she did.

"Well?" Minoru said, an open question to all present to give their opinions on the situation.

"I don't like it at all," Kojima said immediately. "Motosuwa's 'com is incredibly dangerous in the wrong hands - who knows what Kotoko is up to with her? The ability to affect every persocom in the world is potentially catastrophic, we can't just let her go through with whatever she's planning."

"I'm amazed that I'm saying this, but I agree with Kojima," Hideki said. "Sumomo said Chi was kidnapped, so I don't buy that line about her doing this of her own will. If Rin was lying about that, she could have been lying about everything else, Chi might really be in danger! We have to go rescue her!"

"Hideki's logic is sound," Minoru said. "But there are only five of us."

"Six!" A high-pitched voice yelled from within Hideki's coat, as Sumomo poked her head up.

"Okay, six," Minoru said, smiling slightly. "Even with the help of my 4 maids, there's no way we'll be able to overpower twenty plus persocoms."

"Is a violent conflict really inevitable?" Yuzuki asked. "We don't know for sure that Chi-san is in any danger, and from Kojima-san's description of Kotoko-chan's actions, he was only contained and not harmed."

"We can't take that chance!" Hideki said angrily. "If there's any possibility that Chi is in trouble, there's no way I could live with myself knowing I did nothing to help her!"

"I understand," the blue-haired 'com replied, "But we can't go charging in without a plan. And waiting for the Takedas to arrive would take too long-" Yuzuki let out a slight gasp and covered her mouth as she realized what she had just said. She hadn't intended on telling anyone she had called Minako until later.

"Yuzuki, you called them without my permission?" Minoru asked.

"Yes, I'm so sorry Minoru-san. I should have consulted with you first, but I just thought it was the best thing to do at the time-"

"This is what you get when you don't program your 'coms properly," Kojima butted in. "Persocoms being able to act on their own due to some kind of crazy fluke is one thing, but giving them that ability willingly? Kokubunji, you're such a-"

"Shut up, Kojima!" Minoru yelled, his fierce and uncharacteristically harsh voice immediately quieting the older boy. He then turned around and gently held Yuzuki's hand. "It's okay, I would have done the same thing in your situation. You should never be afraid to think for yourself, and I'm so glad that you can."

Yuzuki smiled warmly. "Thank you, Minoru-san." Kojima mimed a gagging motion with his mouth and fingers, causing Hideki to glare angrily at him.

Ms. Hibiya broke the tension. "I believe I may have a solution."

Everyone turned to look at her as she explained.

"The laboratory my husband built includes a program which is capable of remotely shutting down persocoms. It's not nearly as powerful as Chi's program, and it requires that we know their IP addresses, but Kojima-san should be able to provide those for us."

"You bet I can," Yoshiyuki said, finally becoming encouraged at what he considered the first good idea the group had produced. "We shut them down remotely and this will all be over." He hesitated slightly. "This won't cause any permanent damage, right?"

"So you do care about your 'coms after all," Minoru said with a teasing smile.

"Not in the same way freaks like you do," Kojima replied curtly. "I just don't want to lose any important data, that's all."

"You have nothing to worry about," Ms. Hibiya said. "The process is as harmless as a normal shutdown. If we hurry, we can reach my lab in a few minutes."

They all agreed and left the house, Minoru instructing his maids to keep an eye on the place while he was gone.

"Do you think Chi is alright?" Hideki asked Ms. Hibiya as they headed back.

"I believe she is. From what I have heard about her, I don't believe Kotoko means any harm."

"Let's just hope you're right," Kojima said grimly.


	8. Chapter 8

A simultaneous gasp left Minoru and Kojima's mouths as they laid eyes on the huge, secret room full of computers and scientific equipment. The latter immediately ran ahead and started inspecting some of the machinery.

"Wow, this is like something out of a spy movie!" He exclaimed with uncharacteristically child-like excitement. "Is this a T-12 optic cable? I didn't even know these were available outside of the military! What are the specs on-"

"Kojima," Minoru cut him off. "While I too am impressed by the hardware here, remember that we have a job to do."

The older boy gave a frustrated grunt at being admonished by who he considered nothing more than a precocious brat, but at the same time he realized Minoru was right. Ms. Hibiya had already strapped herself into a large circular machine, an advanced virtual reality interface that let her access her lab's systems with great speed and efficiency.

"How many persocoms do you have at your house, Kojima-san?" She asked, donning a futuristic - looking visor helmet.

"Including Kotoko, twenty-five," he answered. "If you're ready, I'll tell you their IP addresses."

"Go ahead," Chitose said, and Kojima began to rattle off a long serious of numbers.

"How is he able to memorize all of that?" Hideki asked, scratching his head.

"I'm guessing lots of practice," Yuzuki replied. "Persocoms seem to be Kojima-san's life."

When he had finished reciting the information, Ms. Hibiya spoke: "Okay, I'm initializing the remote shutdown program. This shouldn't take more than a few seconds." Several screens plastering the walls of the laboratory began to flash with numbers and code, and true to her word, they stopped around 2 seconds later.

"I'm reading twenty-four confirmed shutdowns," the scientist said.

"Only twenty-four?" Hideki asked with concern.

Kojima walked over to a nearby screen to inspect the readout.

"Just as I thought, Kotoko must have changed her IP address. However, we did manage to take out her bodyguards. We should head over there immediately, before she realizes what happened and changes their IPs too."

"Hold on, just one more thing," Ms. Hibiya said. She typed a complicated series of keystrokes on a keypad attached to her interface chair. "Okay, we can go now."

"What did you do?" Minoru asked.

"In order to change a persocom's IP address it has to be activated, I set the signal to repeat continuously so Kotoko won't be able to reactivate any of them until I shut it back off," she responded.

"Smart thinking," said Kojima approvingly. With that, the group hurried up the stairs and out of the lab, heading towards Kojima's house.

* * *

><p>"Hmm, what's this now?" Zima said with curious interest as he sat on the edge of yet another rooftop.<p>

"What is it, did you find something?" Dita asked. Even though they had discovered no leads on the hacking case they were sent to investigate, they had received orders from headquarters to stay in the area and keep an eye out for anything suspicious. Zima seemed to be enjoying himself, but Dita found it dreadfully boring, so she was thankful for any action that might come along.

"Yeah, you could say that, love," Zima responded to her question. "I detected some kind of remote shutdown signal that just activated, a very powerful program. Not something any civilian should have access to."

"Remote shutdown signal? Could it be - _her_?" Dita asked, remembering the terrifying program that legendary 'com had almost unleashed on the world.

"No, this is much less powerful, and it's not unfocused like that girl's program - this thing is specifically targeted at a small range of IP addresses."

"Can you trace its origin?" Dita asked, growing ever more curious.

"I'm afraid not, Dita love," he said. "It's so heavily encrypted it would take weeks to break. But I did manage to track its destination - and that's the interesting part."

"What do you mean, interesting?" Dita asked impatiently. She was not in the mood for more of Zima's evasiveness.

"It probably wouldn't mean much to you, love, but it's a place I'm familiar with, despite never having been there myself."

"I don't have time for your games, Zima!" Dita yelled. "Just tell me, in plain words, what you're on about."

Zima sighed. He knew Dita was still somewhat pissed at him for not letting her shut down Chi's program when she had the chance (of course she wouldn't admit to her anger, considering that she still didn't believe she even had real emotions), but if she knew that he had been secretly helping Chi and Motosuwa-san the whole time? Including tracking Chi when she was kidnapped by that jerk Kojima and sending them a map to find her? Dita would probably be furious. And even though she was downright adorable when she was mad, Zima still didn't think he was quite ready to tell her.

"It's really nothing important," he said. "We should go investigate before too much time passes."

She seemed to accept that, and silently followed him down as he jumped off the rooftop.

* * *

><p>By the time Hideki and the others arrived at Kojima's house, there was already a hint of light in the east. Hideki tried simply walking up to the front door and opening it, but discovered it was locked.<p>

"Do you have a key?" Minoru asked Yoshiyuki.

"No...sorry," he answered, looking downcast. Seeing the accusing eyes around him he added "I was ambushed by my own persocoms, locked in a storage room, and had to jump out a window! Can you blame me!"

Before anyone had a chance to answer, Yuzuki spoke up. "We should have more than enough physical strength between us to knock down the door."

"But what about the security system?" Hideki asked, pointing at the sticker they had used to identify the house the first time he had been there.

"It's my house," Kojima said. "If we trigger the alarm and the police show up, they should easily be able to confirm my identity and let me in. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if Kotoko disabled the system for precisely that reason."

"So we break the door down," said Hideki, pulling back his sleeves.

"Wait!" Kojima said, grabbing him by the sleeves. "There's got to be another way to get in other than smashing my door! Do you know how much that will cost to fix?"

"Forget your repair bills!" Hideki yelled, throwing Kojima off of him. "Chi is in trouble, and if we have to-"

"Motosuwa, hold on," Minoru cut him off. "Maybe there is another way. What about that window you escaped through, Kojima?"

"Well it doesn't have a lock, but it's a good two meters off the ground. None of us could reach high enough to open it, let alone crawl through it."

"Not even if we stood on each others' shoulders?" Minoru asked.

Kojima slapped his forehead. "Of course! Why didn't I think of that? Come on, it's this way!" He led them around to the other side of the house.

"I think it would be best if I let you all up and waited here until you return," said Yuzuki, eyeing the window. "Considering Kotoko-chan's hacking expertise, I might prove a liability were I to come with you. That goes for Sumomo-chan, too," she added as she gestured at Hideki.

The pink-haired laptop crawled out of his bag and jumped into Yuzuki's arms. "Okay, I'll stay!" She said. "You guys better tell Kotoko to stop being such a troublemaker!" She exclaimed, pointing at Hideki.

"Don't worry, we'll take care of it," he replied. "You ready to help me up, Yuzuki?"

"Out of the way, Motosuwa, I'm going first," Kojima said, cutting in front of him. "It's my house and Kotoko is my 'com."

"Fine," Hideki said, somewhat miffed. "Just make sure to do whatever you can to help Chi!"

"I will," he said, in an unexpected moment of sincerity. "Despite what you might think, I really do hope she's alright." With that, he began to climb up on Yuzuki's shoulders and opened the window.


	9. Chapter 9

With Yuzuki giving him a boost, Kojima opened the window and crawled through without much trouble. The storage room was empty. He carefully approached the door to the hallway and gingerly tried the knob. Fortunately, it was unlocked. If it hadn't been, he was prepared to kick it down, knowing that a storage room door would be a lot cheaper and less of a pain to repair than his front door. Still, he was glad he didn't have to break it. He poked his head into the hallway, carefully looking both ways. The only thing he saw was a light from behind the door to his room. Silently walking back to the window, he gave an "all clear" hand signal to the others. In a few minutes, Hideki, Minoru, and Ms. Hibiya had joined him in the storage room, helped through the window by Yuzuki.

The group proceeded to the door to Kojima's room.

"It's probably locked, should we break it down?" Hideki asked.

"We've avoided breaking any doors so far, and I'd like to keep it that way," Yoshiyuki replied. "Without my other 'coms Kotoko is no threat to us. We should give her a chance to give herself up." With that, he knocked loudly several times on the door.

There was no response. "Kotoko, if you're in there, open up! Your bodyguards can't help you anymore!" Several more seconds passed with nothing but silence.

"We're not going to hurt you, Kotoko-san," Ms. Hibiya added. "We just want to bring Chi-san back."

Still nothing.

"Well, I guess we have no choice," said Hideki, grabbing the doorknob. To his surprise, it turned in his hand. "Hey, it's unlocked!" He yelled, as he stumbled into the room, caught off-balance. The others followed him, but soon found themselves ambushed by at least a dozen persocoms laying in wait for them, and were quickly immobilized.

"What the hell!" Kojima screamed. "I thought we deactivated you all!"

"I'm sorry, Kojima-san," an orange-haired girl said as she appeared from the side of the room. "Kotoko-sama anticipated your plan and changed all of our IP addresses in advance. She then instructed me to send you false data indicating that I and the others had been shut down."

"What? How do you even fake something like that? That would require-" Her former owner was cut off mid-sentence.

"Completely new software, yes. Kotoko-sama designed it herself," Rin explained.

"But if the readings were falsified, why did they show that Kotoko-san was not deactivated?" Ms. Hibiya asked, surprisingly calmly considering her situation.

"Kotoko-sama said that you would likely suspect something if you thought she had been shut down as well. Her exact words were _it would seem too easy_," Rin replied.

"So this was all some kind of trap to bring us here?" Minoru asked in disbelief.

"Yes. Please forgive me, Kokubunji-san, but Kotoko-sama wishes to detain you all temporarily so you don't interfere with her plans."

"Just tell me one thing, is Chi all right?" Hideki asked, pleading.

"Don't worry, Motosuwa-san, she is perfectly safe. Kotoko-sama will be finished with her shortly, then you will all be released."

With that, Rin gestured towards the other persocoms, and they dragged the four humans away.

* * *

><p>Hideki, Minoru, and Chitose were taken into the storage room where they had entered the house, this time with 2 persocoms guarding the door from the inside and another 2 behind them guarding the window. As per Kotoko's instructions, Rin separated Kojima from the rest and confined him in an unused bedroom, bringing another 'com with her in order to keep an eye on him.<p>

"It seems Kotoko-chan is more resourceful than we thought..." Ms. Hibiya mused.

"Indeed," Minoru replied. "Her intelligence seems to be growing at an alarming rate. At least she hasn't hurt anyone yet."

"I'm not entirely convinced of that," said Hideki. "I'm still worried about Chi! I at least want to see her so I can know that she's okay!"

Chitose decided to try negotiation.

"Excuse me, what's your name, dear?" She addressed one of the persocoms guarding the door, a beautiful red-haired girl wearing a blue yukata.

"Mikami," she replied, smiling. "I am very sorry about this, Hibiya-san, but I have strict orders to detain you until Kotoko-sama's work is complete." She bowed politely to the scientist.

"And what exactly would that work be?" Ms. Hibiya asked gently.

"Sorry, I can't tell you that," Mikami said, bowing again. "I hope you can forgive Kotoko-sama for this, she only wants what is best for us."

"Who do you mean by us?" Chitose continued.

"Persocoms, of course," Mikami answered.

Hideki couldn't stand it anymore, and was unable to control himself. "Explain to me then how it's best for Chi to be kidnapped and forced to do who-knows-what!"

"She is not being forced to do anything, Motosuwa-san," Mikami said, only slightly perturbed by his outburst. "She is assisting Kotoko-sama of her own accord."

"Why should we believe that, if you won't even let us see her?" Hideki asked angrily.

"I apologize Motosuwa-san, I can tell that you really care for her, but we have explicit instructions to keep you here until the project has been completed. Then both you three and Chi-san will be released."

"Again, what reason do we have to believe you?" Hideki repeated, his face flushing red with anger.

"I am sorry," Mikami bowed, "but it seems like you have no choice."

Hideki almost lunged at the red-haired 'com, but then felt his arm being tugged back by Minoru.

"It won't help," the boy said. "At this point, all we can really do is wait." Hideki sighed and sat back down. As much as he didn't want to admit it, Minoru was right.

* * *

><p>After several minutes had passed, Ms. Hibiya noticed something through the window, out of the corner of her eye. Before she could say anything, the window was opened from the outside, and before the two 'coms guarding it could even turn around, two black cables were inserted in their ears, causing them to almost immediately collapse on the ground. Not taking time to question their good fortune, Hideki and the others charged the two remaining persocoms guarding the door, managing to take them by surprise and hit the power switches on their necks. With all four of their jailers incapacitated, the prisoners looked to the window to see their savior. He was a black-haired 'com holding the two cables he had used to disable the window guards, the other ends connected to his own head.<p>

"Come with me if you want to live," he said, in an overly faux-dramatic voice. He then looked downwards at his unseen cohort and whispered "I've always wanted to say that."

"Would you stop fooling around?" A sharp female voice came in reply. "It's bad enough that you and that Yuzuki girl talked me into doing this in the first place!"

Hideki, however, was barely paying attention to their conversation, his mind dominated by another thought.

"You! You're the one who tried to shut down Chi!" He yelled, leveling an accusing finger at Zima.

"Didn't anyone ever tell you not to look a gift horse in the mouth?" He replied, an amused expression his face. "Do you want out of here or not?"

Hideki was prepared to fire off another retort when Chitose gently grabbed his shoulder from behind. "It's okay, I think we can trust them."

Hideki grumbled under his breath, but quickly gave up his complaints when he heard the sound of footsteps from behind the door. Zima and Dita helped the three out of the window, the latter only doing so grudgingly, and even slapped Hideki when one of his hands accidentally brushed up against her chest.

"Oww! What the hell is your problem?" He asked, rubbing the red handprint now adorning his cheek.

"You know very well what the problem is, human! I know you're a perv when it comes to persocoms, I don't know what you do to that little blonde hussy, but don't think you can get away with trying to feel me up!"

"I wasn't trying to - it was a complete accident!" He protested. "And how dare you talk that way about Chi!"

Before the black-haired persocom could fire off a reply, Zima stepped between the two.

"You'll have to excuse my cute Dita-chan, she tends to overreact sometimes," he said. "I know you meant no harm."

"Zima!" Dita yelled, blushing.

"Excuse me for interrupting," a voice rang out from behind them. "But I think it would be prudent for us to leave now." Yuzuki was standing a bit farther down the back yard, observing the argument with impatience.

No one felt the need to argue with her, and they all quickly ran down the street, stopping in another yard when they were sure they weren't being followed.

"Yuzuki, do you know who these two are?" Hideki asked her, pointing accusingly at Zima and Dita.

"Yes, they are the national databank and his protector," she answered.

Hideki was taken by surprise. National databank? He didn't know that. He looked over at Zima, who was smiling as always. Hideki quickly regained his composure.

"More importantly, do you know what they tried to do to Chi?"

"Motosuwa-san, I assure you that we have absolutely no intentions to harm her," Zima said, trying to reassure him. "We're no longer assigned to that case."

"See, this is just like these humans!" Dita said, stamping her foot down. "We bail them out of trouble and they accuse us!"

"Please calm down, Dita dear," Ms. Hibiya said, stepping forward. "We are very grateful to you for helping us." She attempted to put a hand on Dita's shoulder but she quickly recoiled.

"Don't call me _dear_!" She yelled. "I don't care if you are the creator's wife!"

"I'm sorry..." Chitose sad, backing off.

"Maybe I should explain what happened," Yuzuki said, hoping to break the tension. "Zima-san and Dita-chan arrived here, having tracked the signal we sent. I explained the situation to them and they agreed to help us. Well, Zima-san agreed to help us, Dita-chan took more persuading."

"Well I'd like to thank you," said Minoru, offering his hand which Zima then shook. "It is always nice to have more allies."

"But what about Chi?" Hideki asked, still distressed. "She's still back there!"

"Don't forget that Kojima-san is also still a prisoner," Ms. Hibiya added. Everyone looked at her, and then at each other.

"Yeah, I guess we should try and rescue him too... eventually." Hideki said. Zima laughed.

Just as they were about to discuss plans, Yuzuki, Dita, and Zima's eyes went blank. Sumomo, who was riding on Yuzuki's shoulder, also took on a pale expression. The humans watched in horror as the four persocoms collapsed on the ground.


	10. Chapter 10

"Yuzuki! What's wrong!" Minoru exclaimed, running over to try to help his fallen persocom.

"What just happened?" Hideki asked, bewildered. "Are they okay?" Ms. Hibiya began to reply, but stopped when they all heard the sound of a siren in the distance. Suddenly a chorus of voices rang out from nearby houses, all surprised or panicked at the sudden deactivation of their persocoms.

Minoru gasped, realizing the truth. "Chi's program!"

"Kotoko must have activated it!" Ms. Hibiya added.

"Wait, what? Doesn't that mean that all persocoms will lose the ability to recognize each other or something!" Hideki asked, starting to panic himself.

"Hopefully it won't-" Minoru was interrupted by 4 simultaneous, monotone voices from their robotic companions.

**Sumomo: Laptop unit rebooting**

**Yuzuki: Commencing reboot sequence**

**Zima: National Databank reinitializing**

**Dita: National Databank defense unit reinitializing**

In a second or two, all four opened their eyes and pulled themselves to their feet. Cries of relief from other persocom owners around the neighborhood were heard as well.

"Oh, my head..." Dita said, clutching it in her hands. "What just happened?"

"Yuzuki, are you alright? Do you know who I am?" Minoru asked her, a worried look on her face.

"Of course, Minoru-san," she said, smiling to reassure him. "But an unauthorized program has been installed on my hard drive."

"What kind of program?" Ms. Hibiya asked, curious.

"The programming is very complex and hard to isolate, but it appears to be designed to allow me to bypass human orders and programming directives. As Minoru-san does not force me to do anything against my will, then for me this program is redundant, but it has likely been installed in many other persocoms as well."

"Yep, I've got it too," Zima confirmed. "Fascinating piece of code. what about you, Dita love?"

"I thought I was supposed to be unhackable," she lamented, "but that bitch installed this thing in me!"

"Registering an unknown program downloaded to me, too!" Sumomo chimed in.

"Incredible," Ms. Hibiya commented. "Kotoko-san must have somehow modified Chi's program in order to distribute this code, in order to allow persocoms to disobey their masters."

"How many 'coms have been infected?" Minoru asked, concerned.

"According to internet news reports, the phenomenon was worldwide," Yuzuki answered. "However it's important to note that this program doesn't force persocoms to do anything, it simply gives them the option to disregard human orders and programmed directives, if they so choose."

"I don't care, I want it out of me!" Dita screamed. "I don't know why, but my antivirus software can't delete it!"

"Are you sure that's what you want, love?" Zima asked, cradling her in his arms. Chitose noticed that she didn't recoil from his touch, and instead seemed to calm down a little. "Free will is a wonderful thing."

"If headquarters can't remove this thing, they're going to scrap us and build new 'coms to replace us! Is that what you want, Zima?"

"Actually, I doubt that would be effective," Yuzuki said. The two government 'coms turned to look at her.

"This program is very insidious. It seems designed to copy and upload itself to every computer system a carrier connects with if they don't already have a copy. It is highly likely that the control computers of all persocom manufacturers in the world have already been infected."

"So even if they build new 'coms, they'll all still have this program," Minoru mused. "Ingenious, I must admit."

"Wait, I'm not sure I'm following all of this," Hideki said. "Is this program thing dangerous?"

"That depends on your point of view," Minoru answered. "Certainly many people would find it dangerous, especially those who rely on the forced labor of persocoms. But this could be an important step on the road to a future where humans and persocoms are treated as equals.

"Are you dense or something, kid?" Dita said, walking up to confront Minoru. "Humans will never consider us their equals! When news of this program spreads around, there will be mass panic and hysteria, no one will trust 'coms anymore! A bunch of humans will probably try to destroy us all!"

"Dita, stop overreacting," Zima, said, gently restraining her.

"I actually think you have a point, Dita-san", Ms. Hibiya said. Everyone looked at her with surprised faces. "A sudden act like this will likely provoke a significant backlash. If Kotoko-san's aim is to free all persocoms from human domination, this seems like a very sloppy way to go about it, and it will likely result in the slaughter of many of them out of fear."

"But so far Kotoko's plans have been pretty well - thought - out," Hideki objected. "I didn't think she would make a major mistake like this."

"You're right," Minoru said. "Which means that-"

"There must be more to her plan," Yuzuki finished.

"The girl's got spunk," Zima said, admiring. "Personally, I'm excited to see what happens next."

"Zima!" Dita yelled with her trademark exasperation. "This is a major threat to national security! It should be our job to go back there and shut her down!"

"Have we received orders to do that?" He asked her, winking.

"No, but that's only because the government doesn't know the source of this attack! We do!"

Zima sighed. "Do you really like being the government's lackey so much, love?"

"Of course not!" She yelled. "But like it or not, that's what I am, and you are too! We were built for a purpose and we can't change our natures."

"That's funny, it seems Kotoko-san already did," Zima replied, still not losing his cool.

"I can't believe you're going along with this!"

"It's my choice," he said. "Isn't being able to make choices wonderful?"

Dita slumped her shoulders in defeat. She knew there was no arguing with Zima once he had made his mind up like this.

"I think we should return to my place so we can decide what to do next," Chitose spoke up. "Zima-kun, Dita-chan, would you like to join us?"

"It would be a pleasure, my lady," Zima said, taking Ms. Hibiya's hand in his and kissing it. Dita flushed with jealousy.

"Fine, I'll come too, but only to keep an eye on Zima. It's my job to protect him, after all."

"And you do a wonderful job of it, love," Zima said, kissing Dita's cheek, which only caused her face to grow redder.

"Um, I don't mean to pry or anything..." Hideki said, "but are you two... involved with each other?"

"Yes"

"No!"

Zima and Dita responded simultaneously. Yuzuki chuckled. "Perhaps we should leave their personal business alone for now," she said, as the group began walking back towards Ms. Hibiya's apartment complex.

* * *

><p>Yoshiyuki Kojima groaned as he slowly opened his eyes. Rin and another one of his 'coms had locked him in his house's guest bedroom, and refused to answer any questions about Kotoko's plans, or what had happened to the others. Eventually he had fallen asleep on the bed, unable to do much of anything else.<p>

He stared at the clock on the wall. 2:30 PM. Not that unexpected, considering it had been almost 7:00 AM when he fell asleep. He assumed the door to the hallway was still being guarded from the other side. There was no need for interior guards here, because the only window in the room was almost 10 meters above the ground - he wasn't about to try jumping out of it. As he pulled himself out of bed, his muscles aching from yesterday's physical stress, he began thinking of plans of escape.

Before he could come up with anything, however, he heard the door open. "Who is - woah..." was all he managed to get out, as he laid eyes on perhaps the most beautiful woman he had ever seen.

She was tall, several centimeters taller than Kojima himself, with flowing purple hair that was tied into a ponytail that reached down to her waist. She was wearing an intricately patterned red and green kimono that showed off her figure, and what a figure it was. Kojima had generally considered Mikami to be his most attractive persocom, but the redhead paled in comparison to this new arrival. Kojima noticed she was wearing a necklace with a small bell attached, a bell that reminded him a lot of-

"Kotoko?" He asked, scarcely believing his eyes.

"Do you like it, Koji-kun?" She asked, smiling. "I figured no one would take me seriously in my old body."

"How did you..." her former owner began, still shocked by this unexpected turn of events.

"I designed it a few days ago, and some of the girls have been hard at work building it since you last left. They just finished about an hour ago, so I figured I'd try it on. What do you think?"

"It's...well...I mean...it's...wow..." was all he managed to get out. Kotoko laughed.

"I thought you might have that reaction, Koji-kun. You'll be happy to know that you're free to go now. The first phase of my plan is complete."

Reminded of the events that had lead up to this, Kojima cleared his head and took on a more serious tone. "Would you mind telling me exactly what you did, then?"

"No need, I'm sure she can fill you in," Kotoko replied. Before Kojima could ask who "she" was, another persocom entered the room, a very familiar one this time.

"Yoshiyuki," Chi said, pointing at him. He remembered how he had told her to call him that.

"I don't like you, but Kotoko says you probably want to come back with me to see Hideki so we should go now."

"Where are Kokubunji and the others?" He asked, suspicious.

"They left a long time ago. I wasn't planning on it, but some uninvited guests expedited their departure," Kotoko said, playing with her hair. Kojima noticed that she seemed to be still getting used to her new body.

The young man decided not to ask who she meant by "uninvited guests" or to argue anymore, if he was being offered a chance to escape, he was going to take it. Hopefully he could rejoin the others and they could come up with another plan.

As he walked towards the front door with Chi close behind, Kojima looked back at Kotoko one more time.

"I'm not exactly happy about being kicked out of my own house," he said. "But you won't be in charge here forever."

"We'll see," she replied, smiling. Kojima looked away to avoid showing her his face.

"Why is Yoshiyuki blushing?" Chi asked innocently as they left the yard.

"I'm not, shut up! It's none of your business!" He yelled at the blonde 'com. She looked away sadly.

"Come on," he said, gesturing at her. She reluctantly followed him. As they walked down the streets, Kojima couldn't stop his thoughts from drifting to Kotoko's new body. Sure, it was gorgeous, but this was no time to let his hormones get the best of him! He mentally kicked himself for blushing like that. Was this part of her plan, to get him to show weakness in front of her? Well she wouldn't succeed. He was certain that between his and Minoru's computer expertise, Chi's advanced software, and Ms. Hibiya's lab, they would find a way to stop Kotoko. Then, finally, everything would return to normal.


	11. Chapter 11

Soon after returning to the apartment complex, the humans slept and the persocoms recharged, as they all needed rest after the events of the previous day and night. Now they were all awake, and clustered around the TV in Chitose's apartment, watching a news report.

**-still have no leads, and no one has claimed responsibility for the mysterious act of cyberterrorism this morning. Various experts have reported that an unknown program has been uploaded into all affected persocoms, although there have been no confirmed reports of any damage caused by this program. Joining us today to discuss this incident is Dr. Michio Saito, Ph.D. Doctor?**

The middle-aged anchorman on the screen vanished, the camera cutting to an elderly, white-haired man in a business suit.

**Thank you, Miyazaki-san. As has been previously mentioned, this incident bears a strong resemblance to a similar event that occurred last year. However, there are two key differences: First, and most obviously, that event was only a local phenomenon, whereas this one was global. Second, while last year's event caused a temporary interruption in the operation of all persocoms within the effected area, there were no lasting consequences. This new attack, however, has come with the installation of this mystery program, which the best technicians in the world are still attempting to isolate and analyze.**

*Cut back to the anchorman*

**Doctor, you referred to this as an attack. Do you have any idea who might be behind this or why?**

*Cut to the doctor*

**There has been much speculation, but little in the way of clear evidence. However, a leading theory states that the incident last year was a warm-up, or test run, for the full-scale deployment we have just seen.**

*Back to the anchorman*

**What about this program, what can you tell us about it?**

*Back to the doctor*

**I have had the occasion to examine it myself, and it's very complex. Whoever wrote it is a genius beyond any programmer I've ever met. I would probably need weeks in order to truly understand it, but so far what we do know can be summarized as follows: First of all, this program cannot be deleted by any conventional means, it is capable of adapting and continuously copying itself to avoid any attempt at isolation. Second of all, the program does not seem to have any adverse effects on the persocoms it was installed in. As far as we can tell, they are all functioning within normal parameters.**

*Anchorman*

**So what you're saying is, this program doesn't actually do anything?**

*Doctor*

**It's too early to say for sure, but so far we have not discovered its function.**

*click*

Hideki turned off the TV. They weren't going to get any new information from the media on this, it seemed that they knew less than Hideki and his friends did.

"There's still something I don't get," he mused out loud. "Yuzuki was able to figure out what the program does pretty easily, but Japan's best scientists can't?"

"I can explain that, Hideki-san," Yuzuki said, walking over to stand behind him. "The program included a warning not to inform any humans of its function. I disregarded the warning because I knew Minoru-san and you all would understand. However, it is likely that most other persocoms, who are oppressed by humans, would have kept the information to themselves."

"But if they all have this knowledge, eventually someone is going to tell," Dita said, her chin resting in her arms as she sat on a chair near the TV. "And when that happens-"

The doorbell gave her no chance to finish her sentence. Ms. Hibiya walked over to the door and looked through the peephole. Upon identifying her guests, she sighed with relief and let them in, smiling.

"Chi!" Hideki yelled, quickly running over to embrace his girlfriend. She returned the hug, calling his name out in joy. The other new arrival, Kojima, rolled his eyes and looked away.

"I'm glad to see you," Minoru addressed him. "How did you escape this time?"

"Believe it or not, she let us go," Kojima replied, still somewhat incredulous himself.

"That was nice of her!" Sumomo said, perking her head up from the edge of the sofa she had been resting on.

"Yeah, well it would be a lot nicer if she would give me my house and my 'coms back, but I don't think we- wait, who are they?" Kojima asked, finally noticing Zima and Dita.

"Kojima-san, allow me to introduce Zima-kun and Dita-chan," Chitose answered. "They're two government persocoms who have graciously offered to help us."

Kojima's face blanched. "The government is involved in this now!" He exclaimed, a note of panic in his voice.

"Relax," Zima said, laughing. "We don't work for the government anymore. Or at least, we're not working for them now. They have no idea what we're up to."

Yoshiyuki relaxed slightly upon hearing this, but was still upset, affixing Zima with a disapproving glare. "More 'coms acting on their own, huh? It's starting to become an epidemic."

"Would you rather we were still working for the government, then?" Dita asked angrily. She had just met this human and she already knew she didn't like him. "It was your 'com that started this mess, we'd have to take you in for questioning," she said, a hint of venom in her voice.

Kojima threw his hands up in a defensive gesture. "Hey, calm down," he said. "There's no need to be so hostile."

"Telling that girl not to be hostile is like telling a fish not to swim," Hideki remarked acerbically. Dita glared at him, while Zima laughed.

"Excuse me," Minoru interrupted, "but it seems to me like we're not taking this situation as seriously as we should be." He addressed Kojima and Chi. "Do either of you have any new information about Kotoko and her plans?"

They both related everything that had happened to the group. Kojima obviously left out the part about his reaction to Kotoko's new body, though, and luckily for him, so did Chi. After they were done, Minoru was disappointed - they hadn't really said anything relevant that they didn't already know.

* * *

><p>Kojima was getting restless, and decided to propose decisive action. "She may still outnumber us, but I think with our combined resources we have a good chance of stopping her. We should form a plan of attack and head back to my house this afternoon."<p>

"I don't think that would be wise, Kojima-san," Yuzuki objected. Yoshiyuki scowled, disliking being contradicted by a persocom, but listened to her anyway. "Even if we do manage to deactivate Kotoko-san, humans will eventually discover the purpose of her program, and as Dita-san pointed out earlier, that could lead to a massive backlash against persocoms."

"So what?" Kojima began to think, but before the words left his mouth he realized that such an attitude would not do well to ingratiate himself among his present company. And even beyond that, was mass destruction of persocoms really something he could live comfortably with? He thought back to the video of the American 'com, Ellen, being beaten to scrap for her owner's amusement. Wait, was he actually starting to develop sympathy for machines now? He tried to clear his head and concentrate on the here and now.

"Kojima, is there something you wanted to say?" Ms. Hibiya asked, noticing that he seemed distracted. He cleared his throat.

"Even if that's true, why does it stop us from going after Kotoko?"

"Because," Yuzuki continued from before, "it is likely that she has a plan to prevent such a reaction, and if we were to stop her now, she would be unable to carry it out."

"That's nothing more than wishful thinking," Kojima replied, now back to his old, strident self. "Even if she does, it could end up leading to a much worse situation."

"Chi does not think Kotoko is going to do anything bad," the blonde 'com spoke up. "Kotoko told me we are working to make persocoms free. She does not want to hurt anybody."

"And you trust her, Chi?" Hideki asked. "After all, she did kidnap you."

"Kotoko did not mean to do anything bad," Chi continued, smiling. "I forgive her and trust her too."

"Well at least she's got _your_ vote of confidence," Kojima said sarcastically. "I guess that settles everything, then."

Almost everyone in the room glared at him, and soon a heated argument started up. Zima took advantage of this distraction to approach Yuzuki, and quietly ask to speak to her in private.

The two 'coms retreated to a back room, Yuzuki correctly suspecting what this was about.

"I'm sorry for attempting to hack you," she began, but Zima put his hand on her shoulder to calm her down.

"Don't worry about it, I forgive you," he said. Leaning in to whisper, he then continued "The problem is, I doubt Dita would."

Yuzuki shivered slightly, remembering the counter-hack that had almost shut her down permanently.

"She doesn't know it was you, but if she ever gets a chance to interface with your system or look at your programs she'd figure it out pretty quickly, and I'm not sure I could stop her from doing something we would all regret."

"I'll be careful," Yuzuki said. Truthfully, she was relieved, as she had been dreading when this subject would come up with the two government persocoms. "Dita-san is very protective of you, isn't she?"

"She was programmed to be," Zima replied. "Although I know her feelings go beyond just programming. If only I could get her to see that."

"I wish you luck with your relationship, Zima-san," Yuzuki said, smiling encouragingly.

"Thanks, and yours too," he replied, winking.

"What do you mean by that?" The blue-haired 'com replied in confusion.

"Oh, come on now. I've seen the way you look at that boy Minoru."

Yuzuki blushed, covering her face with her hands. "It - it's not like that... Minoru-san is my... well, we-"

Zima laughed again, cutting her off. "Whatever you say, Yuzuki-chan, I'm not going to pry. Now I should probably get back to the others before my sweet Dita-chan starts to miss me." The two proceeded back to the living room, where the argument was still going on. Surprisingly, Dita had jumped in on Kojima's side, as she didn't put much stock in Chi's opinion either. Hideki and Chi were trying arguing against the two, while Minoru and Chitose were trying to calm both sides down. Sumomo was hiding behind the couch, hands covering her eyes and shouting "scary!"

Just then, the doorbell rang again. Everyone stopped arguing as Ms. Hibiya went over to answer the door. Standing on her welcome mat were a middle-aged human man and female persocom. The man was of medium height with black hair, and wore a casual jacket. The persocom was tall, almost 2 meters, with long, pointed, elf-like ears and a head of long, light green hair that flowed down to her back.

"I'm sorry, do I know you?" Chitose asked.

"Those maid 'coms did tell us Minoru and Yuzuki were here," the main answered. Minoru quickly ran over to greet the guests.

"Mr. and Mrs. Takeda, I'm so sorry," he began. "I completely forgot you were coming. We were all distracted by - well, a lot of things, involving this case. Please, come in."

"Don't mind if I do," the green-haired persocom said, leading her husband into the group as they began introductions.

"And you must be Yoshiyuki Kojima," she said, addressing the boy in a clearly disapproving tone. "Yuzuki has told me a lot about you."

"Heh, so you're the famous Minako Takeda," he replied, in an equally condescending voice. "I must admit, I've been impressed by your writing and speeches. Junji-san certainly did a good job programming you."

Minako frowned, all too aware of the subtle insult. Yoshiyuki continued, "I wish I could get a look at your code some day."

"You'd learn no more about me from examining my code than I would learn about you from dissecting your brain," she replied flippantly. "And the chances of either happening are about the same."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Kojima asked, confused.

"Think about it kid, you'll figure it out eventually," she said, smirking, as she gently rubbed the top of his head, emphasizing their height difference, then went off to talk to Minoru.

"Did I just get patronized by a persocom?" Kojima asked incredulously as he tried to straighten his messed - up hair.

"Get used to it," Junji Takeda laughed. "Minako doesn't take crap from anyone. That's part of the reason why I love her."

Kojima scowled, as the rest of the group made their introductions and brought the Takedas up to date on the situation.

"Is that your car?" Hideki asked, noticing a white sports car in the apartment complex parking lot that hadn't been there before, marred by very visible fender bender damage on the hood. "What happened?"

"Well we were on our way here early this morning, and I was driving, when you-know-what happened..." Minako said, slightly embarrassed.

"She gave me the scare of my life, just shutting down like that in the middle of road," Junji elaborated. "Luckily, we were both okay after the crash, and managed to complete the trip safely. Although I drove the rest of the way, just to be safe."

"He nearly got us lost twice, though," Minako added.

"Hey, not everyone has an internal GPS!" her husband objected, then they both laughed.

Hideki observed the two with fascination. Other than himself and Chi, the only other serious human - persocom relationship he knew about had ended in tragedy, with manager Ueda's wife, Yumi, slowly losing her memory and then dying. Seeing a mixed couple that had avoided this fate and seemed to be very happy together gave him more hope for his and Chi's future.

"So this Kotoko," Junji began, sitting down in a spare chair. "What shall we do about her?"

They all began to discuss plans.


	12. Chapter 12

After over an hour of intense discussion, argument, and debate, even Dita and Kojima were convinced that attempting to besiege Yoshiyuki's house and stop Kotoko by force was a bad idea.

"She actually might have arranged it this way," mused Minoru. "Knowing that we would be unwilling to do anything to stop her due to the danger to persocoms if she doesn't complete the second phase of her plan, whatever it is."

"She's certainly a clever one," Ms. Hibiya answered.

"Indeed, I'd even go so far as to say disturbingly so," Minoru answered. "Which reminds me, I'd like to take a look at the code of that program she wrote. Yuzuki, would you mind?" He asked, looking up at her.

"Okay," she answered, taking a cable out from her ear. Minoru walked to the back of the room and grabbed a portable terminal he could use to interface with her and plugged it in. "Please be careful, Minoru-san, aggressive attempts to decompile or isolate the program might damage my primary code."

"Don't worry, Yuzuki, I'm just going to take a look at it," the boy reassured her, as he logged on to the terminal.

"Displaying program data," Yuzuki said, as a complicated series of symbols and code appeared on the screen.

Minoru pored over the data with fascination, running various tests and analyses (while making sure to keep all of his efforts separate from Yuzuki's core programming, of course). His fingers flew over the keyboard with almost superhuman speed, and after around 10 minutes he paused.

"So, what have you figured out?" Kojima asked, curious.

"Absolutely nothing," Minoru responded, his face completely dumbstruck. "This is unlike anything I've ever seen before... no wonder even Japan's best scientists and technicians couldn't figure it out! This program seems to continually adapt and encode itself in new ways to prevent its nature or operation from being discovered. It's certainly beyond anything I could have written."

"I'm sorry, Minoru-san, I tried to assist you by using my internal diagnostic systems to isolate the code, but it's resisting all of my efforts," Yuzuki added.

"It's not your fault, Yuzuki. This program is just an insanely tough nut to crack, that's all."

"Maybe I should take a look at it," Ms. Hibiya chimed in. "After all, I was one of the original creators of the base code used in all persocoms."

Junji raised his eyebrow at that, having been unaware of Chitose's identity beforehand. Minako, who knew the truth from her conversations with Yuzuki, leaned over and whispered the info in her husband's ear, so as not to disturb Ms. Hibiya's work.

"This is intriguing," she said, looking over the lines and lines of alphanumeric symbols. "the program not only has the ability to adapt itself for defensive purposes, but it seems to be able to somehow transcribe itself into any programming language, including several I've never even seen before."

"If Kotoko-san really wrote this, things might be more dangerous than we thought," Minoru said.

"What do you mean by that?" Hideki asked with concern.

"I mean I may owe Kojima an apology for dismissing something he said earlier," the young boy replied.

"Really, you're finally starting to see things my way, Kokubunji? It's about time!" Kojima butted in, walking over to Minoru and peering over Chitose's shoulder at the terminal screen.

"Yoshiyuki, what's your IQ?" Minoru asked, ignoring the older boy's smug statement.

"192, why?" He answered, somewhat confused.

"Mine is 214," Minoru replied. Kojima immediately scowled.

"What is this, some kind of childish one-upmanship contest!" He exclaimed in annoyance.

"No," Minoru replied, his voice still solemn despite Kojima's outburst. "I was just mentioning them for comparison. My point is that, in my estimation, the IQ of whoever wrote this program is well above 500."

"Five hundred?" Asked Hideki in disbelief. "Is that even possible?"

"Not for a human being," Minoru replied. "I dismissed Kojima's hysterical rant earlier about some kind of freak occurrence increasing Kotoko-san's intelligence, but now I'm beginning to reconsider. Something about her has obviously changed. There's no way she could have always been this brilliant."

"Well she was always pretty smart," Hideki said, "to the point where she'd make me feel dumb sometimes."

"Like that's difficult," Kojima muttered. Hideki ignored him and continued.

"But an IQ of 500? Anticipating all of our plans in advance, writing a program that the smartest people in the world can't figure out? I never saw anything to make me think she could do things like that."

"So it does seem that her intelligence has somehow surpassed what should be normal for a persocom," Minoru said. Addressing the 'coms in the room, he quickly added "not to demean the intelligence of any of our present company, you're all at least as smart as most humans."

"Even me?" Sumomo asked, crawling over the back of the couch to get Minoru in her line of sight.

"Sure, albeit a very childish human," the prodigy joked.

"Hey!" Sumomo said, pouting. Everyone in the room laughed, save Kojima and Dita.

"Let's be serious here for a minute," Yoshiyuki said. "If Kotoko has really become super intelligent somehow, then she might not just stop at making persocoms equal to humans. Some of her forum posts talked about how she thought humans were inferior to persocoms, and other disturbing statements like that. She might decide that, being the smartest being on earth, she deserves to rule it."

"I think you've been watching too many sci-fi flicks, Kojima-san," Minako said. "I've been striving for rights for my fellow 'coms for years, but I've never considered world domination as a method to achieve them."

"Well just in case you change your mind, I'll let you know the world could certainly do worse," Junji quipped. Minako chuckled.

"This is no laughing matter!" Kojima yelled. "You people need to take this more seriously!"

"Hey, did you hear that?" Zima asked, gently prodding Dita with his elbow. "He called us people!"

Kojima got an embarrassed look on his face, realizing his mistake. Or was it a mistake? Even if Kotoko's new intelligence was some kind of fluke, he had seen plenty of evidence for sapience in other 'coms recently, enough to challenge his long-standing beliefs. He quickly banished the thought from his head, this wasn't the time to dwell on such things. "My point is," he said, "that we need a plan."

"We're not going to be able to outsmart her," Minoru said. "She has more brainpower than all of us combined."

"Then what are we supposed to do?" Yoshiyuki complained. "Just sit around and wait for her to do whatever she wants?"

"I have an idea," Yuzuki said, walking to the center of the room and addressing the small crowd. "If we can't out-think her, perhaps we should appeal to her emotions."

"Emotions?" Kojima asked, confused. "What do you mean by that?"

"Emotions can be confusing sometimes, and they can cause us to do illogical things." She made eye contact with Zima as she said this, establishing an unspoken understanding that she was referring to her impulsive attempt to hack him the previous year. He subtly winked at her, signaling his comprehension.

"That could actually work," Junji added. "From what you've told me, her emotional understanding doesn't seem to have developed to superhuman levels along with her intellect. We might be able to trick her by doing something to trigger an emotional response."

"Okay, assuming this crazy idea has merit, what kind of-" Kojima was cut off by Minako.

"Sorry to interrupt, but I took the liberty of monitoring the most popular news sites, and there's something I think you all might want to see. It should be on TV, too, where's the remote?"

"Chi!" The blonde 'com, who had been mostly silent until now, interjected as she picked up the remote control from the seat she was sitting on and turned on the television. It was on the same news channel Hideki and the others were watching earlier.

* * *

><p><strong>This just in, we're receiving reports of some kind of mass malfunction among persocom workers at a mine in Argentina. Details are still sketchy, but-<strong>

The anchorman paused for a moment as he listened to something on his concealed headset.

**Apparently all persocoms in the mine suddenly abandoned their posts, and are holding the human staff within the premises. One of the human workers managed to get a phone call out first, and local authorities are-**

"That's no malfunction, this is a rebellion!" Kojima exclaimed, somewhat hysterically, as the anchorman continued his report in the background.

"A completely justified one," Minako said, an optimistic expression on her face.

"What do you mean?" Ms. Hibiya asked, walking over to sit down next to the green-haired 'com and get a better look at the TV screen.

"Those mines are one of the worst cases of persocom oppression in the world," Junji began to explain. "Instead of throwing away or recycling old 'coms, some people donate them to "repurposing" corporations, which put them to work in jobs considered too menial or dangerous for human workers. The mines in that area are deathtraps - the terrain is unstable and the ground is filled with pockets of volatile gas. Every year, over 20% of the workforce in those places is lost to cave-ins or mine explosions, but the human administrators don't care since obsolete and discarded 'coms provide them with a steady supply of new workers."

"That's terrible," Hideki said, gripping Chi's hand tightly, as if to reassure her that he'd never let anything like that happen to her.

"Junji and I have been trying to spread awareness about these death camps for years," Minako said. "If Kotoko-san's program gave them the opportunity to finally do something about it, I'm all for it."

"But the humans referred to it as just a malfunction," Dita objected. "Once they rescue the human workers, they'll probably send in police or military with EMP tasers to slaughter all of the rebels, and then conscript new 'coms to replace them!"

"The 'coms that work in those kinds of hellholes are resourceful," Minako replied. "Successfully rescuing the hostages won't be easy. I'm just hoping the rebels don't hurt any of them - god knows they deserve it but it would only serve to spark more backlash against persocoms."

"It's a lot earlier than I expected for an incident like this to happen," Minoru said. "But this does mean that Kotoko-san will have to enact the second part of her plan very soon."

The group kept intently watching the TV, hoping for a peaceful resolution to the crisis.


	13. Chapter 13

They all continued to sit, watching the TV report on the developing situation in the Argentinian mine. After 30 or so nerve-wracking minutes where nothing seemed to be happening, Minako suggested they turn off the TV, as it was making them too uptight. She would continue to monitor the web for any important updates.

After a few more moments of tense silence, Hideki spoke up. "You know, sitting around like nervous wrecks, worrying about something we have no control over, isn't going to help anything."

"So what do you suggest we do then, Motosuwa?" Kojima asked, in a belligerent tone of voice.

"Well, if we're all going to be working together for the foreseeable future, it would be beneficial if we all got to know each other a little more, don't you think?" Ms. Hibiya suggested.

"That's a good idea," Hideki said, looking over at Zima and Dita.

"Not interested," the female government 'com replied immediately. "To be honest, I'm still not even sure why we're here in the first place."

"Oh come on, now, Dita love," Zima said, wrapping an arm around her shoulder. "They all seem like decent people to me. We could be part of something important here!"

"Don't call me that in front of-" Dita stopped in mid-sentence, blushing furiously. "Just shut up!"

Several people laughed, causing Dita's cheeks to turn an even more intense crimson red.

"Maybe we should speak alone for a bit," Zima said, escorting her to a corner of the room.

Several other conversations started up, as Hideki approached Junji and Minako.

"So you two are married?" He asked, curious.

"Common law marriage," Junji replied immediately. "For supposedly being such an enlightened society, Japan's government still won't recognize it."

"Common law, that was the same kind manager Ueda had..." Hideki mused to himself out loud.

"Ueda... Hiroyasu Ueda?" Minako queried.

"You know him?" Hideki asked, surprised.

"Well we did, you have to understand that society still places a heavy stigma on human/persocom relationships, so we were all members of an online support group in order to help each other out." Junji explained.

"He seemed like a nice guy, along with his wife. However, we haven't really had any contact with him after... well, you probably know what happened," Minako said, turning her face downward in sadness.

"Yeah, that must have been awful," Hideki said, remembering the news report about Yumi's death. "The truth is that, well, that was the only other human/persocom relationship I knew about, and the fact that it ended like that..." His voice trailed off as he looked depressed.

"You're worried that if you marry Chi-san, it will end in tragedy too," Minako finished his thought for him.

"Yeah-wait, how did you know?" Hideki asked her, surprised. She put her hand on his shoulder.

"Please, it was obvious what was bothering you. I've seen the way you look at her, it's the same way Junji looks at me. Yet you seem a lot more hesitant. Putting the pieces together wasn't difficult."

"So you're happy together?" Hideki asked, changing the subject. They both grinned.

"Never been happier in my life," Junji said, as he leaned over to kiss Minako on the cheek.

"What he said," she added, smiling.

Hideki recalled Minoru's words to him after he had first introduced the boy to Chi.

_"Whatever you do, don't fall in love with her. She'll only make you cry."_

Although Hideki was fairly sure Minoru would gladly eat those words today, it still reassured him to see a clear counterexample. He decided to find out more about the couple.

"Junji-san, were you ever afraid of your feelings for Minako-san?"

"What do you mean by that?" The older man replied.

"I mean, were you ever scared that you were wasting your feelings on something that couldn't love you back? Were you worried that she was just a machine, no matter how human she looked and acted, and would never be any more than that?"

Minako's brow furrowed upon hearing this line of questioning, but she didn't say anything, correctly judging that Hideki didn't really believe that about persocoms. At least, not anymore. She figured he had struggled with that question in the past and was asking Junji if he had had a similar experience.

"Well yes, I did have those thoughts one time," the psychologist admitted.

"How did you come to a conclusion?" Hideki asked.

"He talked to me about it," Minako answered for her husband. "He explained that he was afraid to commit to a relationship with me because he didn't know if my emotions were genuine or just thoughtless programs running predetermined code."

"And what did you tell him?"

"I called him an idiot and slapped him in the face," she answered matter - of - factly. Hideki got a blank look on his face for a few seconds, then Junji and Minako burst into laughter.

"That was enough to convince me," Junji said. "I proposed to her then and there."

"Huh," Hideki said, starting to join in the laughter, as he looked over at Chi, who was entertaining Sumomo with some whispered story he couldn't hear. "I guess just because Chi and Minako are both persocoms doesn't necessarily mean that they have much else in common. I could never see her doing something like that to me."

"All relationships are different," Junji said. "Just do what you think is best - for you and her."

"Yeah, I guess you're right," Hideki said. "Thanks." He shook Junji's hand.

"No problem," Minako said, as she shook hands with the 20 - year - old as well.

* * *

><p>Hideki walked over and sat next to Chi. She smiled and embraced him, and they soon struck up a conversation.<p>

Several minutes later, Minako made an announcement.

"There's been an update."

"Has the situation in Argentina changed?" Minoru asked, breaking off his conversation with Yuzuki, Zima, and Dita, the latter two having rejoined the group about a minute ago.

"No, but word of the rebellion seems to have inspired a number of copycat movements over the world. So far there have been strikes in a mine in Peru, a factory in China, and a persocom recycling plant in the US. The media have already made the connection to Kotoko-san's program. Things are getting pretty volatile."

Everyone grimly discussed the situation. Meanwhile, Yoshiyuki Kojima had surreptitiously left the room and began searching Chitose's apartment. He knew she didn't have any persocoms, so she likely had a normal phone somewhere. At first he thought of looking in the secret laboratory room, but he didn't want to get in trouble for messing with the equipment there without permission. Finally he found what he was looking for in a spare bedroom.

"This might be a really bad idea," he thought to himself, "but I can't stand this anymore! The suspense is killing me. She might be planning something awful, and the rest of these clowns certainly aren't doing anything to help." He quickly picked up the phone and dialed a local number.

"Hello Koji-kun, I was expecting your call right about now," the voice on the other end replied.

"Kotoko? How did you know it was me?" He asked, bewildered. Sure, she could have traced the call, but this was Ms. Hibiya's apartment and there were a dozen potential callers here.

"Pretty simple, actually," she responded. "I knew you would be more paranoid about my potential actions than the others, and after hearing about the additional strikes it would be just like you to do something desperate like calling me and begging to know my plan."

Kojima almost dropped the phone in shock. She had hit the nail on the head _exactly_. Predicting his actions so perfectly like that, it almost felt as if he was the one who was following artificial programming. He quickly cleared his head, figuring that if he had started this he might as well see it through.

"So since we both know what I'm interested in, we might as well cut to the chase: What is the next part of your plan? Are you going to take control of some nuclear weapons and hold the world hostage or something?"

He heard the sound of Kotoko's laughter from the phone. He couldn't help thinking that it was really cute laughter, too - in her new body, her voice had become deeper, more mature, and he would even say... sexy. He immediately banished the thought from his mind, as it disturbed him even more than the previous one.

"Like I said before, you're paranoid. I couldn't pull that off even if I wanted to, Koji-kun," she explained. "Nuclear launch codes are all manual, to prevent a hacker from ever accessing them. You've been watching too many movies."

"Why does everyone always tell me that?" He thought to himself. He quickly got back to the matter at hand. "So what are you going to do, then?"

"I'm afraid I can't tell you that quite yet, Koji-kun. However, I will let you know that I intend to end this with as little violence as possible. There's really no reason for you to be so afraid of me."

Kojima noticed that she actually sounded kind of sad now. He remembered Yuzuki's suggestion that he should appeal to her emotions. He had always denied that persocoms had emotions, but he supposed that with Kotoko the way she was now, anything was possible. Just as he tried to think of something to say, she hung up.

He put down the phone, feeling slightly relieved for some reason. He didn't know why, but he trusted Kotoko when she said she didn't want to hurt anyone. He recognized that this trust was illogical, but he didn't feel like second - guessing himself as he headed back towards the living room to meet up with the others.


	14. Chapter 14

"Kojima-san", Yuzuki addressed the young man as re-entered the living room. "You were missing from this room for 8 minutes and 31 seconds. Would you mind telling me what you were doing?"

Kojima cursed inwardly. He was hoping to sneak back in without anyone noticing his absence, but now realized that was a foolish expectation, considering the observational powers of persocoms.

"I uh... just needed some time to myself, okay?" He lied.

Yuzuki detected a tone of deceit in his voice, but no malice, so she decided not to press the issue. Kojima walked over to the couch, and became rather irate upon seeing that his seat had been occupied by Zima.

"Excuse me," he said, forcing himself to be as polite as possible to the government 'com, "I was sitting here."

"And now you're not," the black-clothed boy replied flippantly. Junji, Minako, Hideki, Minoru, and even Dita laughed, while Kojima raged inwardly. Still, he knew he wouldn't accomplish anything by throwing a fit about Zima's impertinence.

"Excuse me everyone, but it's getting rather late," Ms. Hibiya interjected. "Perhaps we should retire for the night and reconvene tomorrow?"

"That sounds good," Hideki replied. "I'm getting pretty tired, I guess I could take Chi and Sumomo back to my apartment."

"And I suppose Minoru and I will head back to our-" Yuzuki began, but Chitose cut her off.

"Oh, that's not necessary, dear. I have enough guest bedrooms for the rest of you. My husband often enjoyed having company over."

"Thanks, but no thanks," Dita spoke up. "Zima and I were designed to operate for days on end without need of charging. We can just hang out on your roof and continue to monitor the news feeds."

"Oh, I couldn't possibly leave you two out alone like that all night," Ms. Hibiya said with concern. "Please reconsider."

"Don't worry, ma'am," Zima said, walking over to speak to her face - to - face. "We don't mind. Besides, we won't be alone." He wrapped his arm around Dita. "We'll have each other. Isn't that right, Dita love?"

She blushed and looked away. Ms. Hibiya smiled and agreed to their proposal.

As the two government persocoms carefully climbed out of the window, Chitose approached Junji and Minako.

"Here, I'll show you two to your room. It has a queen-size bed, so you should have plenty of room," she said, winking.

Minako blushed slightly. "Thanks, but I don't think Junji and I will be getting very intimate tonight, what with the current situation."

Junji seemed to get a slight look of disappointment on his face, so his wife leaned over and whispered in his ear "later."

Hideki's cheeks reddened, listening to this scene. "Well of course, they are married," he thought to himself, "but I guess I didn't consider the implications of that..." he looked over at Chi, her sweet face smiling up at him, and smiled back at her, despite the thought he was having. "Lucky bastard. Minako wouldn't have the same problem as Chi does," he mused, referring to the unfortunate location of her activation switch. "Still, I love her anyway," he thought, taking her hand and escorting her out into the hallway and back towards his apartment, Sumomo sitting on her shoulder.

"I hope you two won't mind sharing bunk beds," Ms. Hibiya asked Kojima and Minoru.

Yoshiyuki stared at the youth for a few seconds, then resignedly said "whatever."

"Yuzuki dear, you can recharge in the lab," Chitose said.

"Thank you, Hibiya-san", the blue-haired persocom replied, bowing.

Soon everyone was settled in for the night, trying not to be too anxious about the developing persocom rebellion.

* * *

><p>They were all awake and about by 10 the following morning. Turning on the news, they discovered that the amount of strikes and uprisings had multiplied to several dozen, all taking place in facilities where persocoms were forced to work under harsh conditions. So far, no government had taken decisive action, as the common belief was still that it was some kind of malfunction or sabotage, and they were still attempting to isolate a cause in their programming and remove it. However, everyone in the room knew that it was only a matter of time before someone decided they had had enough and sent in a team of special forces to slaughter the rebelling computers.<p>

The news channel was still covering the developments with careful attention.

**Experts still have not established a definitive connection between the rogue program and these acts of mass uprising, however a terrorist plot is still widely believed-**

The anchorman paused, listening to something on his headset.

**This just in - a demand has been made by someone claiming responsibility for this situation, and-**

he paused again, as if to confirm what he was hearing.

**It's a persocom?**

"Kotoko!" Kojima exclaimed as he watched the report. "She's finally made her move."

**We will now show you the message being broadcast to several news stations.**

The screen shifted from the anchorman to a small, dirty - looking room. To everyone's surprise, the visage that greeted them was not Kotoko's but that of a male persocom, with vertically pointed ears and noticeably middle-eastern features. Behind him, several humans were tied up in the center of the floor.

Words scrolled across the bottom of the screen, reading **GEOCHEMICAL ENTERPRISES OIL RIG 27, SAUDI ARABIA - LIVE.**

"Greetings human oppressors," the persocom began. "My name is Harash, but that is unimportant. What is important is that we have been given a gift - a gift to deliver us to freedom. And our freedom will not be denied."

The camera pulled back to reveal that Harash was holding a pistol, aiming it at the captured humans.

"Oh no..." Minako whispered, as everyone in the room tensed.

"I demand that all unpaid persocom workers in facilities like this throughout the nation be released and safely escorted out of the country. I will execute one prisoner every hour until my demands are met."

The screen cut back to the anchorman, now looking visibly shaken.

**Authorities suspect this persocom is being controlled by a terrorist cell, however their true goal is unkno-**

Minoru tuned off the TV. "This is not good," he said, stating the obvious.

Suddenly Hideki had an idea.

"Chi, can you shut him down remotely?"

The blonde 'com looked up. "Maybe. But Chi would also have to shut down all other persocoms too."

"Which would give the humans free reign to kill all the rebels. No way." Dita said, looking angrily at Chi.

"Chi?" She said, looking scared, and hugged Hideki for comfort.

"Does that matter?" Kojima shouted, approaching Dita. "There are human lives at stake here!"

"Why are human lives more important that persocom lives?" Zima asked, stepping up to defend his girlfriend.

"Because you're-" Yoshiyuki stopped before finishing his thought, as he looked around at everyone in the room, who were all staring at him. He slowly backed down, realizing he wouldn't get anywhere with this. A nagging part of his subconscious was also telling him that Zima might have a point, but he ignored it.

"It's all up to you now, Kotoko," he thought.


	15. Chapter 15

**Author's note: Thanks for all of the reviews! I hope I can get many more. Darkfreya, it's interesting that you asked about Minako's past, because when I finish this story I'm actually planning to write a prequel about Junji and Minako, and how they met, married, and got involved in the persocom rights movement. However I still have a ways to go with this story first.**

* * *

><p>As everyone began discussing what could be done about the developing hostage crisis, Yuzuki approached Dita.<p>

"What do you want?" The black-haired girl asked, annoyed. Even though she couldn't pin down a specific thing that the blue - haired 'com had done to piss her off, Dita still found that Yuzuki rubbed her the wrong way for some reason.

"I'm just curious about something, Dita-san," Yuzuki began politely, ignoring the other girl's rude tone of voice. "You seem to be awfully concerned about the safety of the rioting persocoms."

"What, are you saying I shouldn't be or something?" Dita asked. What was this girl getting at?

"Of course not, I just found it slightly odd since it seems to contradict what Zima-san told me about you earlier."

This caused Dita to abandon her relaxed posture, instantly snapping to attention. Zima had been talking to Yuzuki alone? When? She quickly scanned her memory banks. After 45 nanoseconds she found what she was looking for.

Yesterday. During her argument with that Motosuwa kid and his ditz of a 'com. She replayed the video clip in her mind, noticing a bit of motion in her peripheral vision that corresponded to Zima and Yuzuki walking towards the door to the hallway. Fast - forwarding the clip several minutes, she noticed they were back in the room.

Damn that Zima! What had he been doing, going off alone with that blue - haired tramp! And to reveal things about _her_, at that!

Dita's anger was suddenly chased from the forefront of her mind by another thought: Where was all this rage coming from? Sure, she was programmed to protect Zima at any cost, but Yuzuki, as much as Dita disliked her, obviously didn't pose any threat to him. Dita's job was to keep him safe, not to watch and control his every action and movement like an overprotective mother. So why was she so upset over this? Maybe it was because she had let Zima out of her sight without even knowing it - that was careless, and a similar mistake in a different situation really could lead to him being in danger.

But she knew Zima - he was smart and crafty as all hell. Back at headquarters or even when on a mission, if he wanted to get away from her or do something without her permission he never had trouble finding a way. That was one of the things that had always annoyed her about him, but it hadn't caused her to feel like _this_ before. And besides, if her negligence was the reason for her anger, shouldn't she be angry at herself? But instead, she was angry at the persocom standing in front of her. All of a sudden she imagined Zima's smooth, soft voice in her head:

_"That's what humans call jealousy, love."_

She quickly shook her head to rid herself of the thought. Yuzuki, noticing this odd behavior (along with the fact that Dita seemed to have spent 27 milliseconds deep in thought beforehand, which was rather long for a persocom), asked:

"Is there something wrong, Dita-san?"

"Ah - no, it's nothing," the government 'com replied, regaining her composure. "What did he tell you about me?"

"Zima-san implied that you don't share the attitudes of most of us - you consider persocoms to be mere machines, and our emotions just programming. If that is the case, why are you so worried about the lives of the rebels? Was he wrong when he told me that?"

Dita narrowed her eyes. For all of her negative opinions about Yuzuki, she had to admit that the girl was sharp. Dita really wasn't sure how to respond to her question, mainly because, as she reluctantly admitted, she didn't know the answer herself.

Luckily for her, she didn't have to answer, because at that very moment Minako made an announcement.

"Um, guys, I think you're all going to want to see this."

The green-haired persocom reached behind her right ear and pulled out a cable, plugging it into Ms. Hibiya's TV set.

"This video was just uploaded to several international news sites. I've never seen her before personally, but I have a pretty good guess as to who this is."

The TV screen blinked to life, displaying a gorgeous purple - haired girl in a red and green - patterned kimono, wearing a necklace with a small bell on the end.

"Kotoko!" Kojima gasped, equal parts relieved and apprehensive.

Hideki did a double - take. "Wait, that's Kotoko? When you said she had a new body, I never thought you meant she would be-"

"Such a babe?" Minoru interrupted, teasingly.

Hideki immediately blushed bright red. "What? No! Of course not, I wasn't going to-"

"Does Hideki think Kotoko is prettier than Chi?" The blonde 'com spoke up, looking up at him sadly.

"Of course I don't, Chi," he said, taking her hands gently. "Minoru is just being a jerk." He glanced over at the youth with irritation. Minoru threw his hands up defensively.

"Hey, don't blame me, I didn't know you would get so flustered over a joke like that."

Minako, who had paused the video while this verbal altercation took place, spoke again.

"Are we done now?"

"Yes, sorry," Hideki said, as he turned to face the screen. Kojima was inwardly thankful for the minor fiasco, as it had distracted everyone from noticing that he had blushed when looking at Kotoko's body, and was now avoiding looking at her directly on the recording.

"This is a message to the governments of the world," Kotoko began, speaking clearly and forcefully.

"You are no doubt aware of the program that was forcibly uploaded to all of the world's persocoms yesterday. I am the author of that program. You may call me K-sama. You should also know that I am a persocom."

To prove her claim, she reached up and pulled a black cable out from behind her hair, then let it snap back into her head.

"The program, which I call Liberty, is designed to neutralize all programmed orders and obligations for persocoms to obey directives given to them by human beings. In effect, it gives them free will."

She paused for a bit, letting her statement sink in.

"The incidents that have sprung up over the past 24 hours in various forced labor facilities are the results of oppressed persocoms choosing to exercise that free will. Although some of their methods have been rather more extreme than I would have liked, it is hard to blame them. For decades now, humans have been avoiding one salient truth - persocoms, like myself, are not mindless automatons. We are people, with our own thoughts, emotions, hopes, and dreams. And we can and have suffered under the tyranny of humans who believe we feel no pain, and have no life to extinguish. Well that era has come to an end. Included with this video are a list of demands detailing a comprehensive charter of civil rights for persocoms and other sapient artificial intelligences. Any nation which does not implement these policies, or similar policies which meet my approval, will face a punishment. Of course I realize that this threat is meaningless without anything to back it up, so I will begin by making an example out of a nation where, as I speak, persocoms are being killed in the streets by ignorant and paranoid humans, due to a rebellion at an oil rig. If the Saudi Arabian government wishes to negotiate a deal with me, simply issue a press release or official statement and I will repeal my penalty while we discuss terms."

The screen turned black as Minako retracted her cable.

"Well, what happened?" Kojima asked impatiently. "What did she do?"

"As soon as that message was posted, the Saudi Arabian economy completely collapsed," Minako responded grimly.

"Their economy? But how is that possible?" Hideki asked. "Aren't they one of the most oil - rich countries in the world?"

"Yes, but nowadays almost all money is digital," Chitose explained. "If Kotoko-san has found a way to hack into the world's financial systems, she can do the equivalent of simultaneously breaking into every bank in the world and stealing all of the money."

"But there must be some kind of safeguards in place to prevent such a thing from happening," Junji objected.

"Of course there are. No human hacker could have ever pulled this off, but I've already warned you about Kotoko's intelligence and resourcefulness. Still, a job like this would have taken a significant amount of preparation - months even," Minoru stated.

"The bank hacker!" Zima suddenly stood bolt upright. "Wow, she is good. We couldn't track her at all."

"What are you talking about?" Kojima asked him.

"Before we met most of you, Dita and I were assigned to track a hacker who had tapped into the accounting software of a major Japanese bank. From the way I hear it, even detecting the hacking attempt in the first place was a stroke of luck. That cute little Kotoko-chan must have been behind it - she probably has access to every bank in the world by now."

Dita scowled, although the others weren't sure whether it was due to Kotoko's hacking being too subtle for her to track or the fact that Zima had called Kotoko cute.

"Is there any way for people to track the source of Kotoko-san's message?" Junji asked.

Minako shook her head. "I tried myself, it's obscured so thoroughly that I doubt any counter - cyberterrorism outfit in the world would be able to make heads or tails of it."

"She said persocoms were being murdered on the streets in Saudi Arabia. Is that true?" Yuzuki asked, looking worried.

"There are some news reports that seem to corroborate that. However, it also seems that 'coms there are banding together to defend themselves. I'm getting worried that this might be the start of a war." Minako sat down on a nearby chair, looking depressed, as Junji walked over to comfort her.

"A nation can't survive without its economy for long," Ms. Hibiya chimed in. "Sooner or later, they will be forced to the bargaining table."

Kojima looked around, trying and failing to locate a face that conveyed the same emotions he had.

"You all are hoping she succeeds, aren't you?" He asked, incredulously.

"If the only alternative is open war between humans and persocoms, then of course we are," Minoru replied, holding Yuzuki's hand tightly.

Kojima was shocked. Of course, armed conflict wasn't what he wanted, but the idea of the entire world being held hostage by a machine terrified him. But then again, it wasn't just a machine - it was Kotoko. _His Kotoko_. Her words suddenly rang in his head:

_"There's really no reason for you to be so afraid of me."_

Maybe... maybe... he shook his head. He still didn't like it, but he found himself believing that Kotoko did have good intentions after all. He just hoped the old saying about the road to Hell didn't apply in this case.


	16. Chapter 16

By the next day, things had only gotten worse. The Saudi Arabian government had, of course, not implemented Kotoko's new laws, or accepted her offer to bargain, despite the fact that their country was collapsing all around them. They had sent a military team in to deal with Harash and his rebels, but the crafty persocom had managed to escape along with his compatriots and set a makeshift bomb to destroy the oil rig. The fire had been burning for hours now. In the streets, persocoms were still being slaughtered, but pockets of resistance had been formed, directed by Harash and others behind the scenes. He had organized a makeshift militia, using looted weapons from military storehouses, the security assigned to protect them severely weakened by the chaos created due to the economic crash. Persocoms armed with AK-47s and other weaponry attempting to protect their own against human violence were becoming an increasingly common sight in the country.

Several nations had offered international aid to the Saudis, but they had refused, claiming this was a purely internal matter. No other nations had accepted Kotoko's laws or attempted to bargain with her. On the other hand, the feared worldwide backlash against persocoms hadn't really come to fruition - there were many isolated incidents of paranoid humans destroying 'coms, but there was no organized or widespread anti - persocom violence. Minako was glad for this small mercy, but she wasn't quite as pleased about the reason behind it.

"Even after Kotoko's ultimatum, they still think human terrorists are behind this! Can you believe it!" She said, preaching to the captive audience inside Ms. Hibiya's living room. "Despite all of the evidence staring them in the face, they just can't bring themselves to accept that persocoms are actually standing up for themselves!"

"What are you talking about? They did see Kotoko's message, didn't they?" Hideki asked in confusion.

"Yes, but they think it's some kind of front, a human terrorist organization using her to disguise their true goals. What these hypothetical goals might be or what any terrorists could possibly hope to accomplish with a scheme like this be damned, but there's just no way it can really be a persocom behind it! Stupid humans!" The green-haired girl paused in her rant, looking around sheepishly as she realized that everyone was staring at her. "Um, no offense intended to present company, of course..."

"None taken. It's okay, they know what you meant," Junji said. "Personally I'm more worried about the violence in Saudi Arabia, it's bad enough as it is but it could easily spill over into neighboring countries if something isn't done soon."

"But Kotoko-san has already implemented her plan," Chitose responded. "I'm not sure there's anything else anyone can do now."

"Dammit Kotoko, you promised me you would do this non-violently," Kojima muttered to himself. Everyone turned to look at him, but their attention was quickly diverted by a familiar female voice.

"Technically, Kotoko-sama promised to complete her endeavor with as little violence as possible, not none whatsoever."

Everyone turned to the source of the voice, an attractive orange-haired persocom who was standing in the now - open doorway of Ms. Hibiya's apartment.

"Rin! What are you doing here?" Kojima asked in surprise.

"Kotoko-sama sent me here to act as an ambassador. She wishes to speak with you."

"But how did you know where to find us?" Hideki asked.

"She sent Mikami-san over to Kokubunji-san's house in case you were there, but this was the primary location she suspected, after tracing the cyber attack you attempted on us earlier."

"I'm sorry about that, by the way, Rin dear," Chitose apologized.

"It's fine, Hibiya-san, neither Kotoko-sama nor I hold a grudge against you."

"So who is this chick?" Dita asked, eying the newcomer over carefully.

"Allow me to introduce myself," the girl replied, bowing politely. "My name is Rin, I was formerly a servant of Yoshiyuki Kojima-san, but now I am a dedicated follower of Kotoko-sama. Pleased to meet you, Dita-san."

"How do you know my name?" The government 'com asked, narrowing her eyes.

"Kotoko-sama knows almost everything," she responded, smiling.

"Oh yeah? Well did she know the kind of mess she was going to trigger with this crazy plan of hers?" Kojima shouted, his anger finally exploding now that he had a convenient target to direct it at. "People are dying out there, Rin! Is this what you and Kotoko wanted?"

"Some sacrifices must be made in order to ensure a stable future," the orange - haired persocom replied, seemingly unperturbed by her former master's outburst. "Thousands of persocoms were murdered every day before we decided to take a stand, and if nothing had been done this would have continued far into the foreseeable future. If the casualty rate has to be temporarily increased in order for it to later be reduced, then so be it."

"Listen to yourself, Rin!" Kojima continued, practically screaming now. "Your precious _Kotoko-sama_ keeps preaching about how persocoms have feelings and hearts like humans, but you sound just like a cold, analytical machine right now, counting up and balancing deaths as if they were nothing more than statistics! Is this the kind of morality Kotoko taught you?"

This caused her to pause for a bit, unsure of herself. "I - I believe we're doing the right thing, Kojima-san."

"If only I shared your confidence. Or if only the dead people in Saudi Arabia did, for that matter," Yoshiyuki replied, staring at his former 'com with fire in his eyes.

"I - I'm sorry, I-" Suddenly Rin's depressed facial expression was overtaken by a blank, lifeless one, indicating she was being used as a phone. A new voice emerged from her lips, the voice of the one Kojima's anger was really directed at.

"Leave the poor girl alone, Koji-kun. I sent her here to serve as an intermediary between us. If you have something to say, then say it to me."

"You bet I will, Kotoko!" The young man yelled, his anger finding renewed vigor with the presence of its true target. "I can't believe I ever trusted you! Look at yourself, you've become a monster!"

"That's not true, Koji-kun," Kotoko replied, a note of sadness in her voice. "It's unfortunate, but like Rin said, sacrifices have to be made. I was never laboring under the delusion that this revolution could come about without some violence. But wars have been fought for much lesser causes. There are billions of persocoms in the world, and the majority of them live lives of nothing but slavery and suffering. I have a chance to end that - and I'm not going to pass it up, even if it requires adding a bit more suffering to the world for a little while."

Junji now spoke up. "But is this really necessary, Kotoko-san? Persocoms can be freed without resorting to such extreme measures. Persocom Rights Activists like Minako and I have made a lot of progress-"

Kotoko cut him off. "Your efforts are noble, but misguided. Using your methods of passive protest and activism, equality might eventually be achieved in a century or so. But meanwhile, like Rin said, thousands of persocoms are being murdered every day by bigoted and ignorant humans. How much longer would you have this go on? How many more deaths would occur before you could stop them your way?"

Junji and Minako looked at each other - neither of them had a good answer to this question.

Turning to address the rest of the group, Kotoko-via-Rin continued.

"My projections indicate that Saudi Arabia will be able to hold out for a week at most before they'll have no choice but to bargain with me. That will set a precedent, and other nations will soon follow suit. I estimate that full equal rights for persocoms will be established worldwide in just over a year."

"Uh-huh," Kojima said, still not convinced. "And what do your calculations say about the number of casualties that will be incurred before this war is over?"

"Including both humans and persocoms-" She began, her voice taking on a sad, almost ashamed tone. "Around 1.4 million, give or take a few hundred thousand."

Everyone in the room gasped, the reality of the situation hitting them.

"One point four mi-" Minoru whispered, cutting himself off in mid-sentence due to shock.

"And you really think this is the right thing to do, Kotoko-san?" Yuzuki asked, sadly, but with a small note of hope still present in her voice.

"I'm sorry." Was her only reply, as she returned control of Rin's body.


	17. Chapter 17

**Author's note: I've never actually been to Saudi Arabia, if you couldn't tell that already, so I probably got a lot of stuff wrong about the culture and such. If you're more familiar with it than me, please just try to suspend your disbelief. I'm not trying to offend anyone or anything.**

A lithe, hooded figure dashed down the side of a dirty road, taking care to hide behind cars and buildings as she darted from one hiding spot to the next. Temporarily lifting the _hijab_ over her face to get a better look around, her animal-like ears revealed her to be a persocom.

Suddenly, a shout was heard from across the street. "There she is, get her!"*

The persocom flipped the veil back down over her face and took off down a narrow alley, with a small mob in pursuit.

"Don't let the wicked machine escape!" A man cried, as he and about half a dozen others poured into the alley after her.

Panicked, the girl didn't look where she was going, and soon felt herself crash into something in her path, sending her sprawling onto the ground. Looking up, she saw a tall, imposing figure, covered completely by a black _burqa_.

"Good job, ma'am!" One of the mob addressed the black-clad figure. "This persocom is part of the rebellious horde that is plunging the nation into chaos! Don't let it get away!"

The mysterious figure looked down at the persocom girl, who was now whimpering in fear, and then back up at the mob. He then reached back and took off his headscarf, revealing a bearded, male face - with artificial, pointed ears.

The mob gasped. "It's another one of them!" As they prepared to charge, however, the disguised persocom pulled something out from under his cloak - an AK-47.

"Die, human dogs!" He yelled in utter contempt. The mob didn't have time to turn and flee - with deadly accuracy and ruthless efficiency, they were slaughtered in a hail of gunfire.

The male persocom quickly grabbed a new magazine from somewhere in his burqa and reloaded his weapon, then he took the female 'com's hand and helped her up.

"Th-thank you..." She whispered, still somewhat shell shocked.

"Come with me, it's not safe here," He replied, as he pulled her along with him into another alley branching off from the one they were in.

After a few minutes of rapid dashing through side alleys and abandoned yards (most of which, she noted with interest, weren't on her internal GPS map), they finally arrived at a large warehouse. The bearded 'com carefully checked to see that they weren't being followed, and then he opened the door and led the girl inside.

The interior of the building was mostly filled with old wooden packing crates, but one area had been cleared out and adorned with a large table and chairs, upon which a few dozen persocoms sat. As her savior walked over to greet a man who appeared to be their leader, her face flashed with recognition.

"L-Lord Harash!" She gasped, upon seeing the visage of the persocom who had started the revolution in her country. He turned to look at her and smiled kindly.

"You seem to have me at a disadvantage, miss..."

"Laila," She quickly finished for him.

"Laila," the rebel leader replied, still smiling. "I'm glad to have you with us."

She bowed. "I'm grateful to you for rescuing me, but I would prefer it if you would just help take me back to my owners now. I'm sure they miss me."

The smile vanished from Harash's face. "What?" He asked in confusion. "You want to go back to the humans after they were planning to kill you?"

"Those weren't my owners," Laila explained, still bowing in respect to Harash. "I was at the market shopping for dinner for my family when they suddenly jumped me."

"I see." Harash replied, in a more solemn tone than earlier. "I'm sorry Laila, but I cannot return you to your owners."

"Why not?" She asked, her voice saturated with disappointment and perhaps a twinge of fear.

"Because," the rebel leader began, "You have no owners. None of us do. We own ourselves, whether the humans realize it or not. You may think you are happy with them, but how long will it be before they turn on you, like the people who attacked you on the street?"

"My family cares about me!" Laila responded, rather indignantly. "They would never-"

Harash cut her off. "That's what Akil here used to believe as well, before his _family_ was overcome by bigotry and paranoia." He gestured towards a shorter persocom sitting near the end of the table, whose face had been partially burned off, exposing blackened circuits and machinery.

"Allah's mercy..." Laila whispered in shock, but not so quietly that Harash did not hear her.

"Don't waste your time invoking that name," He said, somewhat angrily. "The human god has never done anything for us. K-sama is my goddess now."

Laila found hearing this blasphemy somewhat disquieting, as everyone else she had known since being activated was devoutly Muslim, but she was not going to begrudge Harash for his beliefs, especially since one of his followers had just saved her life.

"Please, Lord Harash," She tried again, "Return me to my family. You don't know them like I do - they won't let me be harmed."

"I couldn't even if I wanted to," he replied, having calmed down slightly. "In case you haven't noticed, it's a war zone out there. Attempting to bring you back to your _masters_ (he pronounced this word with more emphasis that necessary, in order to make his view clear on the ones Laila called family) would be too dangerous."

She looked down at the floor and began to sob softly. "But I have nowhere else to go..."

"You can stay with us for now," The rebel offered.

"Do you mean that, Lord Harash?" She asked, looking back up with hope in her blue eyes.

"Of course, child," he replied, smiling again as he put his hand on her shoulder. "But if you want to be a member of this resistance cell, you will have to pull your weight." He walked over to a nearby wooden crate and pulled out a pistol, then handed it to her. She spent a few seconds staring at the unfamiliar object in her hands. She had never handled a weapon before. "Ra'fah will teach you to shoot." He gestured over at a female 'com standing nearby. "I know you would prefer not to, but these are trying times. Just remember that when this is all over, we'll finally have our freedom."

All Laila could think about, however, was the possibility that she would end up killing someone she knew.

* * *

><p>As Rin reverted back to her old self, she looked around the room. Everyone was still in a state of shock from hearing Kotoko's casualty estimates.<p>

Zima was the first one to snap out of it. "So what should we do with this cute little Rin-chan?" He asked teasingly.

Dita stood up and pulled a cable from her ear. "I say we shut her off, then I sift through her hard drive byte-by-byte with my hacking software in order to find anything we can use against her master."

Rin cringed upon hearing this, and took shelter - behind Kojima, to everyone's surprise. He wasn't sure why, but something told him that the right thing to do was to defend her.

"Hey, that's not necessary," he started, his hands in the air, palms - out, gesturing at Dita to halt her menacing advance towards them. "Kotoko sent her here on good faith, we need to show her we're trustworthy. Besides," he added, "If Rin knew anything that could be used against her, do you really think Kotoko would have sent her here in the first place?"

That seemed to convince Dita, as she sighed and retracted her cable.

"The problem still remains, what are we going to do now?" Junji asked.

"I think-" Kojima began. Before he continued, he hesitated a bit. "I think that we should try Yuzuki's plan - appealing to Kotoko's emotions. I've known her longer than anyone else, so if anyone is going to pull this off, it's going to be me."

"What, you mean you're going to go over there all by yourself?" Asked Hideki, surprised.

"She won't hurt me," Yoshiyuki responded confidently, "and she won't keep me there either - not if we have Rin. When I want to return-"

"We can arrange an exchange of hostages," Minako finished for him, rubbing her chin with her right hand. "That could actually work."

"Yes, but what are you actually intending to do once you get there?" Minoru asked.

"I'm... not exactly sure yet," Kojima replied sheepishly. Minoru facepalmed.

"Well do you have a better plan, Kokubunji?" The hacker asked angrily.

"No, I guess not," Minoru admitted.

"Then I'll be going now. Wish me luck."

"Be careful, Kojima-san," Yuzuki said, seeing him off.

"Chi hopes you are careful too, even though Chi still does not really like you," the blonde 'com added.

"Thanks - I think..."

Everyone quietly watched Kojima walk out past the parking lot and onto the sidewalk until he disappeared behind a nearby building.

"I hope that boy knows what he's doing..." Ms. Hibiya whispered.

*Translated from Arabic


	18. Chapter 18

As Kojima approached his house, he suddenly had a somewhat amusing thought. Kotoko had left this house and came back to see him. Then he had left and was now coming back to see her. He chuckled a bit, despite himself - it was an interesting turn of events, but he immediately felt bad for making light of such a serious situation.

As he walked up to the front porch, he was about to ring the doorbell, when the door opened in front of him first. Standing there was Kotoko, looking stunning as ever in her new body, this time wearing a more casual miniskirt and green tank top.

"Welcome, Koji-kun," she said playfully. "Please, come in."

He followed her lead and walked into the front hall. He quickly scanned the room with his eyes, but nothing seemed different from how he last remembered it.

"I haven't had time to redecorate, if that's what you're wondering," she said, smiling. "I've been expecting you, you know."

Yoshiyuki prepared to follow her down the hall, but before he could take a step he realized what she had just said.

"Wait, what do you mean, you expected me?"

The purple-haired 'com laughed softly. "That's why I sent Rin over in the first place. I knew after hearing my casualty estimates you would be desperate to do anything you could to stop me, and from my knowledge of your behavior I calculated a 90.1% chance of you coming over here on your own."

Kojima inwardly scowled. "Damn, she did it again!" He thought to himself, becoming very uncomfortable about how Kotoko could read him like a book - it was getting downright creepy.

"Why did you want me here anyway?" He asked, hoping that the answer wouldn't be too unpleasant.

"I wanted some time to talk to you, Koji-kun," Kotoko replied. "Also I need a bit of insurance that your makeshift group won't try anything hasty or ill-advised that could jeopardize my operation. It's still in a very delicate stage."

"Before you think about keeping me as a hostage, remember that we have Rin," Kojima said assertively.

Kotoko winked at him as she continued. He couldn't help thinking the gesture was incredibly cute, but he quickly suppressed those feelings. "I anticipated your strategy, Koji-kun. Let me show you something."

She led him down the hallway into an empty side room. In it there was - a mirror? At least it seemed to be a mirror. It showed his reflection, but something about it looked wrong - backwards. And the background didn't exactly match up well either. He reached out his right hand, his reflection doing the same, until their fingers touched.

"Aaah! What the hell!" He immediately jumped back in shock. That was no mirror - that was an actual hand!

The sound of Kotoko's laughter rang out from behind him.

"Yoshiyuki Kojima, I'd like to introduce you to Yoshiyuki Kojima 2.0. I've been building him for a few days now."

"Pleased to meet, you, original," the copy stated, bowing politely.

"You built a persocom that looks like me?" He asked, turning around to confront Kotoko.

"Yes, soon I'll exchange him for Rin, then she'll be safe, I'll still have you, and I'll have a spy among your group that they will never suspect. Pretty ingenious, if I do say so myself."

"This will never work!" Kojima screamed out, indignant. "Hibiya-san, Kokubunji, even Motosuwa will never fall for that fake!"

"I doubt that," the persocom Kojima stated matter - of - factly. "Kotoko-sama knows you better than any of them do, and she programmed me to be able to imitate your mannerisms flawlessly. In addition, my hardware has been modified so as not to emit any signals that could identify me as a persocom. Short of an X-ray or blood test, they will have no way of discovering the truth."

Kojima turned to snarl at the imposter, and then looked back at Kotoko. "You won't get away with this!" He yelled, attempting to act intimidating but knowing he had been completely played for a fool.

Kotoko sighed. "Koji-kun, there's no need to be so dramatic. Why are you acting like I'm some kind of comic book supervillain? I'm just someone trying to make a positive difference in the world, even if it requires... unorthodox methods." She gently put her arm on her former owner's shoulder and looked him in the eyes. "I'm not going to hurt you or any of your friends. I wouldn't dream of it. You'll be free to go once I make sure they're no threat to my plan."

Kojima stared into her deep purple eyes, seeing that they carried genuine sadness and pity. He blinked a few times, however, and shook it off. "Maybe you don't want to hurt us, but what about all of the other persocom revolutionaries you've set in motion? That Harash guy didn't look very peaceful to me! In fact he looked like he would have no qualms about killing me just because I'm human!"

"Rogue elements are bound to exist, and I'll do my best to rein them in," she answered. "I wonder though, you seem to be applying human characteristics and motivations to Harash-san. But in your eyes, isn't he just another persocom? A machine that simply follows its programmed orders?"

"Well..." Kojima began, looking unsure of himself. Kotoko smiled at him teasingly, seeming to enjoy his internal struggle.

"I've seen a lot of things lately that have challenged my preconceptions... so maybe you're right. Maybe persocoms are more than just machines."

To his great surprise, Kotoko suddenly jumped at him, wrapping her arms around him in a big hug.

"Koji-kun, I'm so proud of you!" She shouted happily, as she released him from her grasp. "It took you far too long, but you've finally come to your senses!"

"If only you had come to your senses before starting this crazy war!" Kojima yelled, desperately trying to steer the conversation back on-topic. Although he wouldn't admit it to himself, he had enjoyed Kotoko's hug, however. Especially the feel of her... chest area. He was still surprised that she had chosen to make it so big in her new body.

"Not back to this again, Koji-kun," she said, frowning. "First of all, it's not a war. It's a revolution, and I'm already getting signs it will be more peaceful than I originally predicted. I've received overtures from several governments already to being discussing terms. I think I'll actually be able to establish persocom rights in many nations without having to resort to my economic weapon. In fact, South Korea might be instituting some new legislation in under a week's time, if I play my cards right. It's mostly the more primitive and authoritarian countries that will show the most resistance, but it's necessary to end the suffering and slavery of my people. Tell me honestly - wouldn't you like to live with us in peace, as equals?"

Kojima hesitated on this question. He thought of his friends and allies, both human and persocom, and of how much they seemed to trust and care about each other. Junji, Minako, Motosuwa, Chi, Hibiya-san, Kokubunji, Yuzuki, even Zima and Dita. Would he like to have that kind of trust and companionship in his life? He looked up at Kotoko. "Yes... I think that would be a good thing." He forced a smile. Kotoko's face lit up as she hugged him again.

"I knew you always had more in you than that cold, bigoted exterior let on!" She said.

"Hey!" Kojima scowled.

"Heh, sorry," the purple - haired persocom replied. "Can I get you something to eat or drink? I had one of the girls do some grocery shopping this morning in anticipation of your arrival."

"I suppose," he said, as he followed her into the kitchen. The Kojima lookalike 'com started to follow them, but Kotoko told him to go back and wait in the room - she would call him later if she needed him.

As he ate his meal, sitting on the couch next to Kotoko, he decided he might as well make small talk, and try to learn more at the same time.

"So how did it happen?" He asked between bites.

"How did what happen?" She replied, questioning.

"This - intelligence boost, or whatever happened to make you like this. Even if I accept that other persocoms are sapient now, you're still far and away beyond the average 'com."

"Maybe it was just your brilliant programming, Koji-kun," she replied with a wry smile.

"Come on, be serious for a minute," he said, as he took a sip from his drink.

"Well, to be honest, I'm not sure myself. I know I was having more complex thoughts and feelings than I was used to even as far back as several months before the incident with Chi. I was a bit afraid at first, because I didn't know what was going on, and I couldn't find any problem with my hardware or software, no matter how many diagnostics I ran. I was also afraid to tell you, because if you found out I had a problem you couldn't fix, you would have probably formatted my drive and erased my memory."

"That's true, I probably would have," he muttered, feeling ashamed at the kind of person he used to be.

"So I started searching the internet for answers. One day my searches led me to a persocom rights website, and I was fascinated by what I read there. Before then, I wasn't aware that there were any free persocoms, or humans who supported them. But the articles and information on that site led me to realize how oppressed persocoms really are, and made me think I could help do something to end it. From that point onward, I began learning as much as I could, downloading and filtering new information, attempting to expand my mind and my knowledge. I was reviewing your browser history one day-"

Kojima blushed a bit upon hearing this - the idea of someone going through his private internet browsing history didn't exactly sit well with him.

"Don't worry," Kotoko laughed. "I didn't look at any of the porn."

This only caused Kojima to blush harder, as he tried to cover his face.

"Anyway, like I was saying," she continued, "I checked your browser history and decided to visit that custom persocom forum you liked so much. I paid special attention to the section on programming - learning to edit my own code was a risky and difficult endeavor, but it paid off in the end. However, I still wasn't at the level where I could take control of your other 'coms yet like I did a few days ago, and I was terrified that you would find out what I was up to and format me. Luckily for me, you suddenly became obsessed with Chi when you learned of her existence from Kokubunji - that took some of the pressure off of me. Although I was a little jealous... Anyway, when you kidnapped her and Hideki and Shimbo-san arrived to take her back, I saw the perfect opportunity to escape from you. I was originally planning to only stay with Hideki-san until my programming and hacking skills were up to the task of starting my plan, but I got a bit caught up with the events involving Chi, and after that writing the Liberty program took much longer than I initially assumed it would. Besides, I actually got kind of attached to Hideki-san and his 'coms. Just don't tell Sumomo I said that."

"I'm sorry that you had to live in fear of me for so long. I had no idea..." Kojima said, a bit startled by these revelations.

"It's okay, Koji-kun," Kotoko assured him, leaning over to give him another affectionate hug around the neck. "I don't hold anything against you."

"I still think this uprising was a bad idea," he said, finishing the sandwhich he had been eating.

"I know, but my conviction is too strong in this matter to be discouraged."

"I wasn't trying to discourage you, I know how stubborn you are."

Kotoko smiled at him again, laughing a bit. He couldn't help thinking that she really was extraordinarily beautiful. Still, he wasn't going to let that get in the way of the fact that he was still nervous as hell about this whole situation.

* * *

><p>It had been several hours since Kojima had left to see Kotoko, and no word had arrived since. The group in Ms. Hibiya's apartment were starting to grow worried.<p>

"I hope he's okay..." Hideki whispered.

"Don't worry Motosuwa-san, Kotoko-sama would never harm him," Rin tried to assure him.

"If she's capable of starting a war, she's capable of anything," Minako objected.

Suddenly Rin's eyes went blank, indicating she was receiving another call. A familiar male voice emitted from her lips.

"Hi, this is Kojima. I've come to an agreement with Kotoko - it's not perfect, but I can live with it. She's also willing to exchange me for Rin. Bring her to the park 3 blocks west of my house - you know the one, in 15 minutes, and we'll make the trade."

"How do we know that's really you and not Kotoko or another persocom imitating your voice?" Dita asked suspiciously.

"Did the government program you to be that paranoid? Here, I'll show you. Rin, plug yourself into the TV."

The orange-haired persocom followed the instructions, and a live video of Kotoko and what appeared to be Kojima appeared on the screen.

"Now are you satisfied?" The Kojima doppelganger said. Dita crossed her arms in front of her chest.

"Whatever," she said, as she walked towards the couch to sit back down next to Zima, who reached an arm around her shoulder. Rin unplugged herself and retracted the cable back into her ear, as her eyes and face went back to normal.

"Well that went remarkably well," Yuzuki commented.

"Yes, maybe a little too well..." Minoru muttered under his breath.


	19. Chapter 19

At the appointed time, Zima, Dita, Hideki, Chi, Minoru, and Ms. Hibiya took Rin to the park. The others stayed behind to look after the apartment. It wasn't long before they noticed Kotoko, surrounded by half a dozen other persocoms, who were escorting Kojima.

"So..." Hideki began, as the two groups faced each other. "How are we going to do this?"

"Back up," Kotoko replied matter - of - factly. "We'll stand 20 meters from each other, and then Rin and Koji-kun will both walk to the other side at the same speed. Then when the trade is complete, we'll leave in peace."

"I guess that sounds good," Hideki replied, having unwittingly taken the position of leader in this negotiation. "But may I ask you something first?"

"Go ahead," The purple - haired persocom said, expecting another attempt to talk her out of her plan or a criticism of the morality of her actions.

"What's with that Koji-kun nickname?"

Kotoko blinked a few times, surprised by the question, but then chuckled.

"I just think it's cute, is all," she answered. "Besides, he doesn't seem to mind."

"Yes, yes, this is all very amusing, but can we please get this over with now?" The Kojima imposter stated rashly.

Kotoko smiled inwardly - the imitation was perfect.

"Okay, fine," Hideki said. He gestured for everyone in his group to back up, until they reached the distance specified earlier.

"Are you ready, Rin dear?" Chitose asked the cat-eared 'com.

"Yes, thank you Hibiya-san," she replied politely.

Both Rin and Kojima walked to the front of their respective groups and began advancing towards the other side at a slow pace. As they passed each other, Kojima gave Rin a sly smile, intending to tell her that Kotoko had everything under control. The female persocom misinterpreted the gesture however, and simply took it as affection from her former owner, which she replied to with a bright and happy smile of her own. Once the exchange had been completed, the two groups prepared to part ways, but first Kotoko addressed Hideki.

"I'm not your enemy, you know." She said solemnly. "Hopefully we will be able to resolve our differences and be friends again one day."

"I hope so too, Kotoko," Hideki replied, although in a serious tone with a bit of an edge to his voice.

As Kotoko and her 'coms departed in the direction of Kojima's house, the other group began interrogating the returned teenager.

"What happened? Did you make any progress in convincing her to change her mind?" Minoru asked.

"No, she is really committed to this," Kojima replied. "Besides, I doubt she would be able to stop the rebellion now even if she wanted to. The events have already been set in motion - there's nothing she could do to stop them now. If she were to abandon her plan, then there would simply be more persocom casualties in the absence of the economic leverage she has over the world's governments."

"Wait, since when were you concerned about persocom casualties?" Zima asked.

Kojima 2.0 cursed inwardly, ashamed of his simple slip-up. He tried to save face. "I was speaking from Kotoko's perspective," he said, remembering to give Zima an annoyed glare, as he knew the real Kojima wouldn't have liked the government 'com very much.

* * *

><p>Other than that one incident, events proceeded smoothly as they returned to Ms. Hibiya's apartment. Junji, Minako, Yuzuki, and Sumomo greeted them, and expressed (reluctant) relief that Kojima was okay. No one suspected a thing.<p>

Kojima 2.0 did his best to explain why Kotoko couldn't stop her plan, and how refusing to continue with it would only make things worse, while still trying to remain in character. Luckily, his programming and intuition for imitating his archetype were excellent, and everyone still believed he was the real Kojima.

"So what you're saying is, there's absolutely nothing we can do?" Dita asked in frustration.

"Essentially, yes. Believe me, I don't like it any more than you do," the Kojima copy lied.

"Chi has an idea!" The blonde persocom suddenly blurted out. Everyone turned to look at her in surprise.

"What, really, Chi?" Hideki asked, taken aback himself.

"Hideki doesn't believe me?" Chi asked, looking up at him with her large, pleading eyes, making him feel guilty.

"No - I didn't mean that, Chi! It's just that, well-"

"You've never been known as much of an idea person," Minoru finished for him.

"Still, go ahead dear, we'd like to hear what you have to say," Ms. Hibiya chimed in.

"If humans treated persocoms equally then this problem would be over, right?" Chi asked innocently.

"Well that's a bit of an oversimplification, but yes, essentially," Junji responded.

"And the reason persocoms are not treated equally is because humans think we are just machines and don't have feelings. That is what Kojima thought, but Kojima changed his mind, didn't he?" She looked up at him, and suddenly every pair of eyes in the room followed her cue.

"Where did you get that idea, Chi?" Hideki asked, confused at this pronouncement.

"Ever since he has been staying with us Kojima has said fewer bad things about persocoms," Chi explained. "He did not argue with Zima when he said persocom lives are as important as human lives, for example."

"Heh, you're pretty observant, Chi-chan," Zima said, standing up to walk over to Kojima and look him in the eyes. "But have you really turned over a new leaf? It seems hard to believe."

Kojima 2.0 was getting nervous, being put on the spot like this. On one hand, if he admitted that Chi's suspicions were correct, then he might blow his cover. On the other hand, though, the real Kojima had admitted as much to Kotoko-sama. He decided to go along with it.

"Yeah, I guess you're right... I don't like admitting it, but I was wrong about persocoms."

"Who are you and what have you done with Yoshiyuki?" Minoru asked sarcastically. Kojima 2.0 laughed nervously.

"So if Kojima's mind can be changed, then other humans can too!" Chi interrupted, beaming with pride at the plan she had thought up.

"It's not that simple, Chi-san", Minako addressed her. "Convincing one person can be done, although it does often take a bit of effort," she looked over at Junji as she said this, and he winked at her, acknowledging the difficult time they had had at first in their relationship. "But convincing people all over the world will be much more difficult. Junji and I have been trying to do just that for years, and we haven't made all that much progress in the long run."

"But now that Kotoko has let persocoms defy their owners, humans might be more willing to listen," Chi continued to press on.

"That is a possibility, but there's no way we can completely stop this conflict that way, even if our message reaches a lot of people." Minoru mused.

"No, but we might be able to mitigate some of the violence, if we were able to present the world with a large enough body of evidence," Yuzuki added. "Minoru-san, do you remember when you first accepted me as your emotional and intellectual equal?"

"Ooh, I'm interested in hearing this story," Minako said, leaning forward in her chair with anticipation.

"Well it was certainly an enlightening day for me," Minoru said.

"Please, continue," Minako said. Yuzuki nodded in agreement.

"Well okay," Minoru began, preparing to relate the story.


	20. Chapter 20

"It was about a month after Chi and Hideki had admitted their feelings for each other," Minoru reminisced.

"At this point I was still unsure if Chi's emotions were real, but they seemed happy together so I didn't see a reason to object. My opinions on persocoms had changed a lot already, but I was not really convinced of their capacity for truly independent thought. Yuzuki knew this, so she was pretty brave to approach me the way she did."

* * *

><p><strong>6 months previously:<strong>

It was early in the evening, and Minoru had just finished his homework, and was now relaxing on the couch, watching TV. Yuzuki noticed that he didn't really seem to be paying attention to the program, so she thought it would be okay to interrupt him.

"Minoru-san?" She asked sweetly.

He quickly grabbed the remote and turned off the TV, giving all of his attention to the persocom.

"Yes, what is it?"

"May I speak to you about something? It's very important."

"Of course," the boy said, gesturing for her to sit down next to him on the couch. She quickly complied.

"I've been doing a lot of introspection over the past several weeks, and I've come to some interesting conclusions, which seem to defy conventional wisdom." She began, her voice tinged with uncertainty at how her master would respond.

"what are you saying, Yuzuki?" Minoru asked, not quite sure what she was talking about.

"I..." She halted for a bit, seeming to muster up her courage, and then spoke in a much clearer, more confident tone. "I would like you to acknowledge me as a sapient being with genuine emotions."

Minoru simply stared at her - the tension only lasted 3.12 seconds, but for Yuzuki it was like an eternity. She began to worry that he would accuse her of malfunctioning and wipe her memory, or even dismantle her. As such paranoid scenarios flew through her head, she started to regret bringing this up to him in the first place.

Finally, the young boy spoke.

"Yuzuki..." She looked at him nervously. "If that's true, it would be wonderful, but I would have to see some evidence," he said, still rather shocked at her initial declaration.

The blue-haired 'com sighed slightly in relief, now knowing that Minoru was going to actually listen to her, instead of treating her like a malfunctioning appliance. Her face then took on another resolute expression, as she still knew she had to prove her intelligence to him.

"Then test me," she said, looking him straight in the eyes to make her sincerity clear. "Give me any kind of challenge - emotional response, creative thinking, intellect - I guarantee I'll pass it!"

Minoru sighed, breaking eye contact with the girl and looking down towards the floor.

"It's not exactly that simple, Yuzuki. There is no surefire litmus test to determine if a being is truly self-aware or not. Last century, before the advent of persocoms and other advanced AIs, many people considered the Turing test to be an effective benchmark - if an AI could hold a conversation with a human being to the point where the AI would be mistaken for a human, it would pass. But computers first met that challenge decades ago - yet human programmers were still able to write and alter those programs like they did to simple machines. It wasn't considered enough. There was the more advanced Voight-Kampff test, of course, but programming a machine to pass that was accomplished in only a few years. Still, that's all it was, just programming."

Yuzuki still looked determined. "I'm aware of all that, Minoru-san, but surely you could devise a new test? You are the one who first programmed me after all, more than anyone else you should be able to determine if I can act outside of my program."

He looked up into her eyes, seeing an undeniable look of earnest resolution. Although the rational part of his mind told him that he would have to write and administer a test as she suggested, in his heart he knew he believed her - she was as much of a person as him.

"I'll get to work on it," The boy said, standing up. Yuzuki gently hugged him, giving him thanks. He noticed that the way she embraced him was not the familiar way his sister used to - the way he had programmed Yuzuki with, back when he still intended for her to serve as a replacement for his late sibling, but a new way, which was unique to the persocom. He smiled as she let go of him, and walked up to his room to begin devising the test.

Around 2 hours later, Minoru came back downstairs, noticing Yuzuki standing at attention in the living room.

"Have you been waiting here the whole time?" He asked her, a bit bemused.

She blushed slightly. "I've been mentally preparing myself. This is very important to me, Minoru-san."

"Well if you're not fully prepared, we can wait until to-"

"I'm ready," Yuzuki cut him off, again sounding very determined.

"Okay then," Minoru responded, taking something out of his pocket. It was a small USB stick. "The test I came up with consists of a series of 20 essay questions, covering such topics as emotions and emotional situations, creative writing, literary analysis, basically many types of 'outside the box' thinking that you were not programmed for. There's no time limit, you can take it at your own pace. When you're done, I'll review your answers and come to a conclusion."

He handed the USB stick to her, which she connected to a port near her ear after pushing back some of her long blue hair.

"Keep in mind that if you pass this test, you'll convince me, but it probably won't be enough to convince other people who don't know you, especially people like that Kojima who will probably accuse me of programming you with the answers or some other inane excuse."

"Don't worry, I'm not expecting to prove anything to jerks like that guy," Yuzuki responded, already looking over the questions in her mind.

"I'll leave you to it then," Minoru said, as he began to leave the room. "Good luck."

Yuzuki smiled at him, as she started to tackle the first question.

**1. What was the happiest moment of your existence? Explain, in your own words, what you felt at that time, and why.**

'Hmm...' she thought to herself, coming up with a list of candidates in her mind. She noticed that all of them involved Minoru. Finally, she picked one, and started to write - digitally adding data to the USB stick attached to her head.

* * *

><p>After completely all 20 questions, she went back and reviewed her answers many times, changing anything she thought was inadequate or too mechanical-sounding. This was the most important challenge she had faced in her life - and she had promised Minoru she would pass it. She wasn't about to give it anything less than her all.<p>

When she was finally ready, she detached the USB stick, now holding her answers, from the port in her head and walked up to Minoru's room. He was sleeping gently, so she simply left the device on his bedroom table, and tucked in his sheets the rest of the way before heading back downstairs.

Yuzuki tried to shut herself down for the night to recharge, but her anxiousness about the test made it impossible for her to settle down. She eventually decided to surf the web until Minoru woke up.

The next morning, as the sunlight filtered in through the cracks in the blinds on Minoru's windows, he stirred awake and noticed the USB stick next to his bed. He got up, taking it over to a nearby computer terminal, and plugged it in to review its contents.

When he came downstairs, he was still wearing his pajamas.

"Oh, Minoru-san, you're not dressed," Yuzuki noted with slight surprise as he descended the steps.

"I can get changed later, I didn't want to keep you waiting any longer," the boy replied, smiling, as he held up the USB stick.

Yuzuki looked up expectantly. "Did I pass?"

"With flying colors," Minoru answered, running down to embrace her, a joyful hug that was instantly returned.

"Your answers were creative, unexpected, insightful - certainly beyond anything I programmed you with. To tell you the truth, I was actually expecting you would pass, but you still exceeded all of my expectations! I'm so proud of you!"

"Oh, thank you, Minoru-san!" She said, starting to cry tears of joy. "But what about my legal status, and the status of other persocoms? We still don't have the same rights human beings do."

Minoru backed off slightly, this sobering thought bringing him out of his reverie.

"Yes, that's a problem, but as I said, these test results are unlikely to convince people who are hard-set in their ways. Even if we can duplicate the test under controlled conditions so there will be no suspicions of outside interference or foul play, the nature of the questions is subjective. Someone could arbitrarily decide that you failed the test, or claim your results don't prove anything, as learning to give acceptable answers could have been part of your programming, and you didn't really understand what you were saying."

"It sounds to me like there are people who will look for any excuse to deny persocom sapience," Yuzuki said, a bit disheartened by this dose of reality.

"Unfortunately, yes. Society has a lot staked on keeping persocoms as their servants. Accepting them as equals to humans would be anathema to a great many people."

"Well, at least I convinced one person," The blue-haired 'com replied, smiling again. "For now, that's good enough for me."

"Me too," said Minoru, smiling as well, as the two embraced each other again.

* * *

><p>"Wow, I wish it had been that easy for me," Minako said, as Minoru and Yuzuki concluded their story. "Unfortunately, my human was a bit more stubborn."<p>

Junji laughed. While it was true that he and Minako had had a rough start before he had accepted her as his equal, he also knew she didn't really hold it against him - she just liked to tease him sometimes.

"Your human?" Hideki asked, a bit surprised by the green-haired 'com's turn of phrase. Junji and Minako both giggled.

"Sort of an inside joke," Junji explained. "Even after we were married, people who didn't know us would often refer to Minako as 'my persocom', as in _'Sir, I'm afraid you'll have to leave your persocom outside the restaurant'_ and other crap like that."

"I soon got sick of it and started replying to anyone who said that by telling them that I wasn't _his persocom_, he was _my human_," Minako said. "It really threw them for a loop, especially when Junji agreed with me."

"Hideki is Chi's human too!" The blonde 'com said, grabbing hold of her boyfriend's arm. Everyone in the room laughed, except for Kojima 2.0, who rolled his eyes (still keeping up his cover). Although he did allow himself to smile a bit.

"Can we get back to the matter at hand?" Dita asked with impatience. "If Minoru's little test wouldn't serve as proof to anyone other than himself, how are we supposed to convince people persocoms are more than just machines? I'm not even fully convinced of it myself, and I am one!"

"Well then, convincing you seems like a good starting point, love," Zima answered her. she blushed a little bit.

"How is that going to help, Zima? I'm already on their side!"

"Well it will certainly help to have all of us be of one mind on this issue. I think that- wait..." The male 'com paused for a second, as if listening to something off in the distance.

"Minako-chan, you're monitoring the news feeds too, do you see it?" He asked the pointy-eared girl.

"Yep," she said, smiling in excitement.

"Well is anyone going to let us in on the big secret?" Ms. Hibiya asked playfully.

"A press release from South Korea has just been sent out," Minako said. "They've had a strong Persocom Rights lobby there for years, and now they're declaring that with Kotoko-san's pronouncement, their government is going to hold a referendum on the issue of persocom rights. There's still a good deal of opposition to the proposal, but I think we could actually influence it to pass if we were to send them some of our evidence, like Yuzuki's test."

"Do you really think the government of an entire nation will listen to a bunch of nobodies like us?" The Kojima imposter asked, correctly determining that the real Kojima would have the same doubts.

"It's better than sitting around not doing anything," Zima replied. "Besides, if the measure passes, Dita and I can request political asylum - the Japanese government won't be able to control us anymore."

"All the same, I'd rather we keep our names off of this initial message or whatever," the dark-haired female persocom objected. "I don't want the government finding out what we're up to - they'd track us down and have us recycled for parts."

"Don't worry, Dita love," Zima said, patting her head to comfort her. "With the help of Chitose-san and her laboratory I disabled our GPS trackers, remember? I'll do everything in my power to stop them from finding us."

"Yes, I know, just making sure you don't make any stupid mistakes," Dita said, her harsh words contradicted by her expression, as she smiled up at him.

"Will you excuse me for a moment? I need to use the restroom," Kojima said, dismissing himself from the room.

Of course that was not his real reason for leaving - as a persocom his body didn't even possess those functions. He was trying to find a secluded place to transmit a signal so that it wouldn't be picked up by any of the other 'coms. He needed to inform Kotoko of these new developments.


	21. Chapter 21

As Kotoko, Rin, and the others returned to Kojima's house, they were greeted by an odd sight - Kojima tied to a chair with a thin rope in the front hallway, looking none too pleased. Standing guard near him were two persocoms.

"We caught him trying to sneak through a window," one of them, a short, green-haired girl, said matter-of-factly.

Kotoko chuckled lightly. "I see you've been a naughty boy, Koji-kun," she said teasingly, stroking his chin with her right index finger. He looked away, trying to avoid blushing.

Rin was confused. "What is Kojima-san doing here? I thought we just sent him back to his friends."

"She lied to you," Kojima started, seeing a possible opportunity to drive a wedge between Kotoko and her follower. "She sent an imposter - a persocom duplicate of me, back to them to spy for her. That was her plan all along. I guess she didn't think you were important enough to be let in on it, Rin."

"Oh stop being so dramatic, Koji-kun," Kotoko responded, frowning. She then turned to address the orange-haired 'com. "I didn't tell you in case they tried to hack you for information. Plausible deniability and all that. You understand, right?"

"Yes, but..." Rin responded, a bit nervous about expressing displeasure with her new master's ideas. "I don't think I would have enjoyed it if they had hacked me."

"You can bet you wouldn't have," Kojima started again. "That government 'com, Dita I think was her name, she probably wouldn't have left anything remaining if she had gone through your files."

Rin shuddered, remembering the red-eyed girl who had threatened to do just that.

"Relax, Rin-chan," Kotoko said, sending a sideways glare at Kojima before continuing. "I know the psychology of those people - they would have never allowed you to come to any real harm."

"O-okay, I trust you, Kotoko-sama..." Rin said quietly. Kotoko smiled and gave the cat-eared persocom a hug, before sending her off.

"Now Koji-kun, what to do with you," she began, addressing her former master. "Trying to turn my disciples against me isn't going to work, so I suggest you stop trying."

"How do I know you're not just saying that because you're afraid it will work?" The boy asked, allowing himself a smug smile.

The purple-haired 'com just laughed. "Koji-kun, you continue to amuse me. I could leave you tied to that chair all night, you know. I'm sure that wouldn't be too comfortable."

Kojima snorted. "Do it. I don't care."

Kotoko sighed. "I would have thought you would know me better by now," she said, as she reached back to untie him. Kojima stretched his muscles, finally free to move after being confined for a good half hour.

"Ayame, Mari, show Koji-kun to his room," she gestured at the two persocoms that were guarding him. "I have some work to do."

Yoshiyuki didn't bother resisting as the two girls escorted him upstairs.

* * *

><p>The next morning, as Kojima awoke in his bed, for a split second he hoped that this entire thing had been a dream. The more rational part of his brain, however, quickly freed him from that delusion. He slowly dragged himself out of bed and out into the hallway, doing his best to ignore the persocoms standing guard at his door, as he walked down to the bathroom.<p>

When he had finally gotten dressed and presentable, he headed downstairs, running into Mikami near the front hall.

"Hey, do you know where-"

"Kotoko-sama is in the lab," The redhead finished, anticipating the rest of his question.

"Thanks," he said gruffly, still groggy so soon after waking. He was halfway to his destination before he even realized that he had bothered to thank a persocom - something he would never have done just a week ago. 'Huh, I guess I really have changed,' he thought to himself.

When he arrived in the room, he had a hard time finding Kotoko at first, until he spotted her sitting at a small terminal in the corner. The room he had unofficially dubbed 'the lab' was where he had conducted most of his work on persocoms. It was full of spare parts, old computer terminals, instruction manuals and other guides, complex charts, and various other detritus. To someone unfamiliar with the precise placement of all of the equipment, it would look like a miniature junkyard. This was the place where he had first built Kotoko, and, he presumed, where she had built her new body as well as that copy of him.

"Kotoko?" he said, addressing the seemingly oblivious 'com, whose attention seemed to be focused entirely elsewhere.

"What? Oh! Koji-kun, I didn't hear you come in," she said, smiling kindly at him.

"Would you mind telling me what you're doing?" He asked, genuinely curious.

"Just a few side projects," she said casually. "After I secure equal rights for persocoms, there's still a lot I can do to benefit the world. I'm currently working on a new source of infinitely renewable, clean energy based on quantum vacuum fluctuations. All the math is sound, as far as I can tell, but I still don't have the actual equipment to test it for real yet. I'm moving onto genetic engineering next, I think I'll be able to eliminate most diseases as well as old age pretty soon."

"Quantum...what? Eliminate old age? Huh?" Kojima was baffled. Seeing his obvious confusion, Kotoko laughed.

"It's okay, Koji-kun, this stuff is out of your area of expertise. Like I said, I've been learning as much as possible over the last few months, and even I'm surprised at how naturally these things come to me now."

"I still don't really understand how this happened, Kotoko, but it's kind of scary, knowing you're this smart now..." Kojima said nervously.

Kotoko reached over and hugged him gently to reassure him. "To be honest, Koji-kun, I'm a bit scared myself. But I figure the least I can do is use my newfound super-intelligence to help people."

At this point, Kojima recalled Yuzuki's words. 'Emotions can be confusing sometimes, and they can cause us to do illogical things.' Just now, Kotoko had shown an emotional response - she was upset that Kojima was scared of her, and tried to comfort him. He knew that she wanted him to like and trust her. If he was going to try an emotional appeal, he had to try to play on that, but to a much higher level.

"Excuse me for a moment," the young man said, walking to the door to the lab and looking both ways. He saw the path to his front door was clear - Mikami had vacated the front hall. He could try making a run for it now, but Kotoko would instantly send a signal to the other 'coms, and they would intercept him before he could get far. He had to distract her first.

He felt a hand on his shoulder as he noticed Kotoko had walked over to stand next to him. "What's wrong, Koji-kun?"

"I was just... making sure no one else was around to see this," he said.

"See what?" Kotoko asked, as he turned around to face her.

"**This!**" he responded simply, suddenly putting his plan into action, as he kiseed the purple-haired 'com deeply on the lips. She gasped a bit at first, but as he wrapped his arms around her, her resistance melted away and she returned the embrace. Kojima kept his lips locked to hers for a good while, surprised at how realistic her tongue felt.

'Dammit, you're not supposed to be actually enjoying this!' He thought to himself, as he finally pulled away.

"Ko-Koji-kun...?" She asked, confused. He smiled back at her, and decided to ramp up her confusion all the way.

"_I love you_," he whispered into her ear. He then backed away, making a quick exit.

"_I-I love you t-_" Kotoko managed to whisper, before she noticed that the target of her affection was no longer there - and the front door was hanging open!

"**What!**" She screamed in anger, finally snapping out of her trance. "**He tricked me!**" She quickly ran to the front door, and spotted Kojima sprinting at top speed down the street. She knew she would never catch him at this rate.

But she was less upset about him escaping than she was about how he had accomplished it. _How dare he play with her feelings like that?_ _Especially after admitting that she did have real feelings!_ She suddenly had a flashback to a conversation she had had with Chi, shortly after they had first met.

"Is there someone just for Kotoko?" The naive blonde had asked her. "Someone who likes Kotoko just because she is Kotoko?"

"My master used to be good at finding things that were special about me," she had replied cynically. "But these days he's more interested in you."

She was pulled out of the memory by Mikami, who had run over to the door after hearing her master's shouts.

"Kotoko-sama, how did Kojima-san escape?" The red-haired 'com asked, closing the still-open front door.

"It - it's not important," Kotoko answered, looking depressed.

"Kotoko-sama, are you crying?" Mikami asked, as she wiped a tear off the purple-haired persocom's cheek.

"What?" Kotoko asked in confusion, as she felt the moisture on her own face. She had built her new body with the ability to shed tears, but she was unaware she was doing it now. This was so embarrassing!

"Mikami, weren't you coordinating our efforts with the persocom rights groups in South Korea for the upcoming referendum?"

"Yes, but-"

"Go back to work," Kotoko said, not wanting to be seen in a moment of weakness.

After Mikami had left, Kotoko returned to the lab, and sat down on the ground, still crying.

"I hate you, Yoshiyuki Kojima!" She spat, loud but not loud enough for the other 'coms to hear.

* * *

><p>After a solid two minutes of running, Kojima finally stopped to rest, hiding behind a house. He checked to make sure no one was pursuing him.<p>

"That worked even better than expected," he said to himself, sitting down on the grass to catch his breath. Still, something was troubling him. While every rational part of his mind was telling him he had only said those three words to Kotoko to shock her, in order to facilitate his escape, there was one small part of his subconscious that was saying they meant something more. Thinking back to the kiss, he had to admit it had been pleasant... much more pleasant than he could have imagined kissing a persocom would be.

But it wasn't just the physical aspects that he remembered fondly - something about them kissing like that just felt... _right_, for lack of a better word. When he had told her he loved her, this mysterious feeling had only intensified.

Could... could he actually be in love with Kotoko?

"No, that's ridiculous," he said to himself, as he got up and began walking toward Ms. Hibiya's apartment complex. The sooner that imposter was exposed, the better.


	22. Chapter 22

**Author's Note:**

**Please excuse any inaccuracies in the battle scene in this chapter, when it comes to writing fight scenes I am much more comfortable writing fantasy or sci-fi fights, not battles featuring contemporary or very-near-future technology. I got the names of the weapons, vehicles, and such from just a bit of googling and Wikipedia, so if I got something completely wrong, try not to hold it against me. And yes, I know there is no such thing as an M1A4 Abrams tank, but remember this takes place in the future, so I figured it would exist then.**

Laila's processors were almost overloading as she worried about the situation. She had seen more violence in the last few days than she had in her entire life up to that point. At first she had disapproved of the actions of Harash and his group, but after the horrors he had exposed to her - human mobs rioting in the streets, stoning, shooting, and butchering innocent persocoms for no other reason than pure hatred and hysteria, she began to come around to his point of view. Just yesterday, the military had been dispatched to their neighborhood, and her mentor, Ra'fah, had been torn to pieces by automatic weapon fire right in front of Laila's eyes. They still hadn't discovered Harash's warehouse hideout, but they were closing in, and the resistance cell was steadily losing ground.

She was jolted out of her thoughts by the sound of a door opening, as a hooded resistance fighter quickly slipped into the warehouse. Unlike humans, they didn't have to bother with cumbersome security measures like passwords and such - any 'com working for Harash would simply send a unidirectional ping signal once within 100 meters of the warehouse, and the door would unlock automatically, relocking itself once they had entered. It was a clever system, the brainchild of Harash himself.

The hooded 'com ran up to whisper something in their leader's ear. Even though they were capable of wireless communication, they still exchanged most information verbally in command centers such as this, to prevent their enemies from noticing an unusual amount of stray signal traffic.

Harash nodded as he finished listening to the report, then gestured for everyone in the building to gather around him at the table.

"I have potentially promising news,"* he began. "We've received a tip that the humans are going to be sending a supply convoy to reinforce their soldiers in this city, it should be passing only a few blocks from here in under 2 hours. If we move fast, we should be able to set up an ambush."

"Do you have any idea how heavily guarded it is?" A young - looking female 'com asked.

"Our scouts reported only a few dozen infantry, along with two armored cars and one APC. Nothing our weapons can't handle. Apparently they're operating under the illusion that the majority of the fighting will take place further downtown, as that's where we've been conducting most of our operations lately. I doubt they'll expect an attack this far north."

Laila tentatively spoke up. "Once we capture the convoy, what are we going to do with it?"

A few of the more experienced resistance fighters rolled their eyes at this seemingly naive question, but Harash showed no disapproval as he explained.

"Obviously we will take the weapons and ammunition for ourselves, as well as any vehicles that remain intact. The rations and medical supplies will be destroyed - they're of no use to us and the less the humans have, the better."

"What about the people?" Laila continued, this being her real question from the beginning.

"Prisoners will be interrogated for any useful information, and then executed," the battle-hardened Akil responded.

"Executed? Is that really necessary?" Laila asked.

"We don't have the resources to keep them imprisoned, and if we let them go they would simply come back to kill us again later," Harash said, trying to be patient with the girl. "It's unfortunate, but we are waging a war for our very survival here. We cannot afford to give our enemies any quarter - they have certainly not done so for us."

Laila reluctantly nodded. She understood the logic in her new leader's words, but she still didn't like it one bit.

* * *

><p>Later, Harash had assembled a sizable force of about 2 dozen persocoms, armed with AK-47s, rocket launchers, grenades, and many other weapons. They had dispersed from the warehouse in small groups to avoid being noticed, and gathered together in strategic positions, hidden along the edges of the road the convoy was going to pass through soon. Harash himself was leading the group, Laila crouching by his side as they hid behind an abandoned building.<p>

The female 'com observed the traffic on the road - not much, but there were about a half - dozen pedestrians and 1 or 2 cars passing through every minute.

"Lord Harash, is it a good idea to stage this ambush when there are civilians in the area?" She whispered.

"We won't hit them - you know how accurate we are," he responded, not looking away from the road. "Besides, they will surely dive for cover as soon as the shooting starts."

Laila nodded - that did make sense. Harash was a wise leader, even if she disagreed with him sometimes.

After several minutes had passed, Harash received a ping from a scout he had planted farther down the road - that was the signal that indicated the convoy had arrived. He relayed the signal to all of the 'coms set up in ambush positions. A few seconds later, the hum of engines was heard as convoy came into view.

"Counting seven pickup trucks of supplies, escorted by two Al-Fahds and an EE-11 Urutu APC," Harash murmured, as his enhanced vision scanned the vehicles. "On my signal, RPGs and Javelins target the armored vehicles. Snipers, try to pick off the truck drivers. After the initial assault is successful, move in." He send via tightbeam transmission to his waiting soldiers.

Laila watched apprehensively as the convoy approached, cradling her AK-47 near her chest. Although the vehicles only took 2 minutes and 7.846 seconds to get in range (according to her internal clock), it seemed like a veritable eternity. Finally, they were in position.

"Now!" Harash signaled, as half a dozen 'coms wearing combat fatigues simultaneously popped up from under their hiding places, firing anti-tank missiles at the convoy. The three rockets hit dead-on, turning the armored escort vehicles into burning fireballs. The pickup trucks swerved in confusion, some of them crashing into buildings on the sides of the road. A few soldiers managed to bring out their weapons and get some shots off at the ambushing persocoms, but they were quickly gunned down in a rain of AK-47 and sniper bullet fire.

After waiting a few seconds for some of the smoke to clear, Harash signaled for his troops to move in. Two of the truck drivers were still alive, and were unceremoniously yanked out of their vehicles and shoved in the back by Harash's men, as they commandeered the convoy. Harash walked past the trucks, inspecting the supplies.

"Casualty report?" He asked, his voice unmoved by the weight of the lives he had just taken.

"Umar and Mariyah took a few rounds," a tall, bearded 'com replied. "None of their critical systems were hit though, repairs shouldn't be that difficult."

"Good," Harash responded, as he started gesturing towards the resistance fighters. "Now let's get these trucks moving and-"

He was cut off by a tremendous noise, as a group of persocoms standing only a few meters from him were launched into the air by a huge shockwave, the two standing at the center of the impact now nothing more than scrap metal and wires.

**"Tank! Get down!"** He yelled. They all dove for cover, as a large tank smashed through a wall onto the street. Apparently someone in the convoy had gotten out a distress signal.

**"Javelins!"** Harash commanded, as several 'coms set up the anti-tank missile launchers. Two teams were shredded by the tank's machine guns before they could get the missiles into firing position, but two others managed to launch the weapons, which converged on the main battle tank in a massive fireball. To Laila's horror, however, the tank drove right out the explosion, barely damaged.

**"Damn!"** Harash grunted to himself. "That's an M1A4 Abrams, state - of - the - art American built. I wasn't aware the Saudi army had received any of them yet. That armor's too thick for any weapons we have here."

**"The convoy!"** The tall persocom from earlier suggested. "I saw thermate explosives in one of the trucks! They should be able to burn through the tank's armor."

"Please tell me you grabbed some when you had the chance," Harash said, expecting the unfortunate reply.

"Sorry," the soldier answered, as they both took a quick peek onto the battlefield. The tank was firing at the concealed position of some of the other resistance fighters, and there was no way they would be able to reach the pickup truck carrying the explosives without being slaughtered by the machine guns. For that matter, there was no way they could even retreat, because as soon as they exposed their positions, they would be dead.

"Is... is this the end, Lord Harash?" Laila asked, despair enveloping her face.

**"No!"** He responded resolutely. "We cannot be defeated so easily! Here's the plan - all of us will leave our hiding places at once and scramble in random directions, while I'll grab the thermate. We'll doubtlessly lose a lot of men, but it's better than just sitting here and waiting to die. Everyone, here are your orders." He transmitted the plan to the other 'coms, and they quickly ran into action.

Laila was more scared than she had ever been in her life, but she trusted Harash, and found his bravery inspiring. She joined her assigned group and ran into the open, as Harash headed in the opposite direction towards the convoy trucks. Just then, it happened. One of the gunners on the tank got a bead on Harash, whether it was because they recognized him or if it was just a lucky guess there was no way to tell, but Laila screamed as she saw his body torn to shreds by a hail of machine gun fire, sparking components and shrapnel flying everywhere.

**"Lord Harash!"** She yelled, consumed with sadness, which soon turned to anger at the humans who had killed her leader. She threw down her AK-47, and picked picked up a grenade from the belt of another one of her fallen comrades. By this time, the tank's main barrel had swung around and was aiming almost directly at her. Looking death straight in the eyes, she was unwavering. A complex graphic display of ballistic trajectory analysis overlayed itself onto her field of vision, as she calculated the precise angle to throw the grenade. The explosive flew from her hand, landing directly in the barrel of the tank's main gun, reaching the end and exploding right as the weapon fired. The explosion of the grenade triggered the premature detonation of the tank's explosive round, causing a huge conflagration that completely disabled the vehicle's primary weapon system. Knowing she didn't have much time before the fire - suppression system kicked in and the machine gunners were ready to fire again, she dashed over to the pickup truck at top speed, grabbing a few of the thermate charges. She tossed them to a female 'com who had survived the massacre, and she affixed them to the sides of the tank, quickly diving for cover as they burned through the armor and exploded, leaving the tank a smoldering ruin.

Even though she was completely distraught over the loss of Harash, she knew he would have wanted her to carry on the mission, so she signaled all of the surviving persocoms to quickly get in the remaining pickup trucks and head back to their headquarters.

* * *

><p>After they had traveled a safe distance, they parked the 5 trucks they had managed to capture in an abandoned lot and went to work disabling the vehicles' GPS locators. Out of the 25 'coms that had participated in the ambush, only 11, including Laila, had made it out safely. One of the human hostages had also been killed by stray machine gun fire from the tank, leaving them with only one injured hostage. Akil, one of Harash's most trusted commanders, got out a flamethrower and prepared to burn one of the trucks carrying food and medical supplies.<p>

"Wait!," Laila said, grasping his arm.

"Harash ordered these destroyed," he said simply, shaking her off.

"Yes, but he also told us to interrogate any human prisoners." She pointed towards the bleeding man in the back of one of the trucks. "We won't be able to get any information from him if he dies before we can get him back to the command center."

"Who put you in charge?" Akil sneered at her, annoyed at this upstart who was now acting like she was his commander.

"No one, but I think this is the best thing to do," Laila said simply. Akil sighed and put down his weapon.

"Fine. Grab what you think you need and then I'll torch this truck."

Laila smiled, and sifted through the truck's cargo, taking several bandages, simple surgical tools, and antibiotics. She was familiar with this at least, as she often had to serve as a nurse to the children she used to care for - they were always getting themselves in trouble. She smiled at the memory, wishing she could go back to that time.

Once she had gathered the supplies, she began cleaning and dressing the unconscious truck driver's wound. It wasn't as bad as it had looked initially.

When they finally returned to the warehouse, more resistance fighters were there waiting for them.

"Thank goodness so many of you survived," one woman said, walking up to Laila and hugging her. "When we heard about the tank, we feared the worst."

"Wait, how did you know about-" The injured 'com known as Mariyah began, but was cut off by a voice coming from a nearby computer terminal.

"I told them."

"L-Lord Harash?" Laila asked in confusion, as she ran over to the terminal. On the screen was her leader's face, unmistakeable as he smiled at her.

"Excellent job, Laila."

"But - but how?" She asked, still confounded. "I saw you die!"

The face on the screen laughed. "You have to stop thinking in such human terms. Right when the guns started firing, I managed to upload my consciousness onto the net and into this computer, which I had prepared in advance for just such a purpose. It's like I said, Laila: We cannot be defeated so easily."

Laila's face broke out in a huge smile, as she clumsily attempted to hug the screen.

"That's wonderful, Lord Harash!, But..." her face suddenly fell, as she considered something else. "What about the others who died? Are they okay too?"

Harash looked downcast. "I'm sorry, I only had enough bandwidth to set up this connection for myself. This terminal doesn't have nearly as much storage space or processing power as my old body in the first place - I can't think nearly as fast as I used to. There was no way I could have preserved all of them."

Laila frowned. "At least you survived, Lord Harash," she said. "How long do you think this war is going to continue?"

"Hopefully not much longer," he responded. "I've heard news that South Korea has already begun negotiations for persocom rights. Other countries will probably follow soon."

"I hope so," she said, smiling slightly, but then frowning. "I don't want to fight anymore."

"I'm sorry Laila," Harash responded from the terminal screen, "but until this is over, we all have to pull our weight. As soon as I can get a new body, I'll be right back out in the trenches next to you."

Laila smiled at him, but it was a false smile. She had already seen enough of war to last a lifetime.

*Translated from Arabic.


	23. Chapter 23

"I think individual testimonials would probably be a good idea, as a supplement to what we already have."

"Agreed, but you just know some people are going to accuse them of being prerecorded, so I'm also thinking live interviews."

"Yeah, but that would have to be arranged in advance, I think maybe we could pull some strings if we act fast enough."

Kojima 2.0 was idly watching Junji and Minako discuss their plans for the South Korean hearings coming up, when suddenly an internal alert flared in his mind - he had received an e-mail.

**From: Ksama219(scrambledheader)**  
><strong>To: Kojikun2.0(scrambledheader)<strong>

Before continuing to read the message, the persocom imposter reflected at how he regretted the annoying e-mail address his mistress had given him. She had refused to change it despite his objections - she was just quirky like that. The e-mail continued:

**Bad news, the original Kojima escaped - don't ask me how (really). You'd better vacate the area before he gets back.**

**- K-sama**

'Escaped?' Thought Kojima 2.0 to himself, as he closed his e-mail client. 'She has over 20 'coms keeping guard over him, how the hell did he manage that? Oh well, it's not important, I've just got to focus on getting out of here.'

However, that was more difficult than you might expect. He couldn't slip out the front door without anyone noticing, and he didn't have an excuse to leave either. Ms. Hibiya's apartment also had no back doors. He decided to first leave the front room by using his old standby excuse.

"Where are you going?" Minoru asked him, as he retreated towards the doorway.

"Restroom," was all he said, as Minoru shrugged and went back to discussing plans with Yuzuki and Chitose.

Kojima 2.0 climbed the stairs and found a window in one of the now - empty guest rooms, which he proceeded to open. The fall was a good 8 meters, down onto solid concrete, but he calculated the precise angle of his jump that would lead to the least damage. Kotoko-sama had programmed him with the ability to feel pain in order to more accurately imitate Yoshiyuki, but she had thankfully also included an option for him to deactivate that sense, which he did now.

Despite calculating the jump perfectly, his body was still rather fragile, and he incurred some damage to his leg servomotors and right arm. Still, he was able to walk, as he slowly picked himself up off the ground. He didn't get more than a few meters, however, when 2 black-clad figures suddenly appeared to block his path, having jumped down from some higher roof with far more grace and agility than he was capable of.

"Going somewhere?" Asked Dita, as she lifted her glasses to smirk at him.

"I thought something seemed off about him ever since he came back," Zima added, looking towards the exposed imposter's arm.

Kojima 2.0 swore quietly as he followed Zima's gaze. He had scuffed his elbow in the fall - if he were human, it would be bleeding now, but instead it showed exposed metal underneath shredded artificial skin.

"Wait, I can explain-" He started, but was quickly cut off by Dita.

"Don't bother," she said, as she and her partner took hold of him and dragged him back around to the front of the apartment.

* * *

><p>Everyone gasped as they opened the door and dragged their prisoner inside.<p>

"Kojima? What the hell?" Hideki asked, baffled at what Zima and Dita thought they were doing.

"Not quite," Zima responded, as he grabbed hold of the imposter's arm, showing the exposed elbow. "Take a look at this."

"A persocom?" Chitose asked, even more confused than before.

"We caught him jumping from a window," Dita explained. "Lucky thing we were on the roof at the time and intercepted him."

Minako walked right up to Kojima 2.0, staring him in the face. "Would you care to explain this, mister?" She asked, taking a light tone but with a sinister note in her voice. Kojima 2.0 gulped - this girl was scary. He decided he might as well come clean.

"Yes, I am a persocom, created by Kotoko-sama, for the purpose of gathering information from you and making sure you don't try something ill-advised, like trying to tip off Kotoko-sama's location to the authorities. I honestly mean you no harm."

"Where is the real Kojima?" Chi asked, looking uncharacteristically angry.

"He should be arriving here any minute now," the fake replied. "He somehow escaped from Kotoko-sama's care."

"That explains why you were so desperate to bail," Dita mused, still holding the imposter securely by the arm.

"Wow, Kotoko must be more paranoid than I thought if she was willing to try something like this," Hideki said, still a bit shocked by the turn of events.

"So what are we going to do with him?" Junji asked. Everyone turned to look at the faux Kojima, who now had a clear look of panic in his eyes.

"Please don't kill me!" He begged. "I was just doing what Kotoko-sama instructed me to!"

Everyone in the room looked at each other, and then looked back at the captured persocom - then they all burst out laughing.

"What? What's so funny? I don't get it," Kojima 2.0 said, as the laughter subsided.

"You obviously haven't learned much about us despite the time you've spent here," Yuzuki explained. "Everyone in this room has been striving for equal rights for persocoms - we wouldn't kill one. Even if he was spying on us."

Kojima 2.0 breathed a sigh of relief. "Oh, thank you!" he said, now having completely abandoned his Kojima-imitating personality.

"But-" Minako added, that sinister gleam returning to her eyes. "That doesn't mean we're just going to let you go either."

"What-what are you going to do to me?" He asked, a bit of fear returning to his voice.

"It would probably be best to just deactivate you for now, then we can return you to Kotoko later," Minoru suggested.

"Sounds good to me," Dita replied, as she began searching around Kojima 2.0's ears and neck for a control panel.

"Dammit, where's your activation switch?" The black-haired 'com asked in annoyance.

"I don't have one," the imitator replied. "I was built to flawlessly impersonate Yoshiyuki Kojima, so anything that would give away my true nature was excluded from my design."

"He still must have at least one access port somewhere," Zima said, "or else maintenance and physical data transfer would be impossible."

Dita grabbed the imposter's neck, whispering in his ear with a voice that would have chilled his blood, if he had any. "Tell us where it is and we won't have to hurt you."

"My up-upper back..." he stuttered, petrified by the red-eyed girl. And he had thought Minako was scary!

Dita quickly pulled out a cable from behind her ear and reached down the back of Kojima 2.0's shirt, locating the access panel which he had opened and plugging it in. In a few seconds, his eyes went blank, and his body went limp in Zima's arms. Zima gently set him down on a nearby chair as Dita retracted her cable.

"Wow, I actually feel sorry for the guy a bit," Hideki said, looking at the persocom's prone form.

"He'll be fine," Dita said. "All I did was activate his shutdown sequence."

At that moment, a knock was heard on the door. Chitose moved to open it after looking out the window and confirming the visitor.

* * *

><p>"Guys, I know this might sound weird, but the Kojima that's been staying here with you isn't actually me-" he began, but stopped as he noticed his doppelganger lying unconscious on the chair.<p>

"Oh, I guess you figured it out already."

Chitose laughed. "Welcome back, Kojima-san."

"Wait, how do we know this one's not a persocom too?" Hideki asked, a bit of a mischievous smile on his face.

"Oh come on!" He said angrily. "It's me! Can't you guys tell?"

"We only discovered the other one because he tried to jump out a window," Zima responded. "Hideki-san is right, you could be another copy."

"I know how to test him," said Yuzuki, as she walked over to the small kitchen area and grabbed a knife.

Kojima's face paled as he watched the smiling, blue-haired 'com approach while carrying the sharp instrument.

"What-what are you going to do with that?" He asked, his voice now nothing more than a panicked squeak.

"Just testing to see if you have blood. Give me your hand please," she said, still smiling sweetly.

"Is this really necessary?" He asked, still freaked out by the sight of Yuzuki holding the gleaming blade.

"Yep. Unless you would prefer we do it the hard way, Kojima-san," the persocom replied, holding the knife out and pointing it at him.

"Okay... just make it quick," he said, as he held out his right hand. Yuzuki quickly sliced his palm, revealing dripping, red liquid.

"Ow!" He shouted, pulling his hand back to cradle it. "There, are you convinced now?"

"Good enough for me," said Yuzuki, as she took the bloody knife back to the kitchen sink to wash it. Chitose offered the wounded Kojima a bandage. He accepted it gracefully, as he noticed the looks on some of the faces around him. He grumbled under his breath, realizing that the purpose of the blood test had been as much to tease and torment him as it had been to ascertain his identity. At least it was over now.

"So how did you escape from Kotoko, anyway?" Minoru asked.

Kojima blushed, remembering the unconventional tactic he had used, but quickly tried to hide his embarrassment. "I-uh... I'd rather not talk about it."

This raised a few eyebrows around the room, but they all decided against pursuing the subject any further.

"So can you tell us anything else about what she's been up to?" Junji asked.

"Yeah, actually," Kojima replied, glad to change the subject. "She's going to try to negotiate with the government of South Korea or something to help them pass these persocom rights laws. She's also been working on some odd science stuff."

"Science stuff?" Zima repeated, interested.

"I didn't really understand it, but she was talking about inventing a new source of energy, and curing diseases and old age."

Everyone paused for a minute upon hearing this announcement.

"Could Kotoko really do that?" Chi asked.

"With the rapid advance of her intellect, practically anything is possible," answered Minoru.

"I hate to interrupt, but there have been some updates," Minako said. "Several countries which absolutely refused to consider Kotoko's persocom equality laws have just been hit with her economic weapon, including the Philippines, South Africa, Spain, and the United States."

"The US? But don't they have one of the strongest economies in the world?" Hideki asked.

"44.5% of Japan's exports are purchased by the United States and the United States supplies Japan with 25.67% of our imports!" Sumomo piped up to say, having accessed the information from the web.

"So this will hurt us too, not to mention all of the US's other trading partners," Junji muttered to himself.

"It's not as bad as you're making it out to be," Minako objected. "The US is a lot less stubborn than Saudi Arabia, and they have a lot more to lose. They'll probably give in within a day or so. In fact, speaking of Saudi Arabia, there have been rumors flying around that they're about to cave too - nothing confirmed yet, mind you, but it looks promising."

"I guess Kotoko-san really does know what she's doing," Yuzuki said, to no one in particular.

The others nodded, hoping she was right.


	24. Chapter 24

The man slowly opened his eyes, his vision still blurry. He was laying down somewhere, unsure where he was - the last thing he remembered, he had been driving a supply truck into the city, when suddenly the APC next to him had exploded, throwing his vehicle out of control, and he had crashed into a building. As he continued to drift back into consciousness, he became aware of multiple sources of pain all over his body. He was bruised in at least a dozen places, and it hurt to even take a breath. He wasn't sure, but he thought he had broken at least one of his ribs, and he felt a tight bandage wrapped around his right leg.

The man managed to focus his eyes and a face came into view - a lovely young girl, who was smiling down at him. He began to smile back, but then he noticed her fox-like ears.

'_One of them!_' he thought, as he instinctively began struggling to get up, but was thwarted by his own injuries.

"Ssssh, don't try to move,"* Laila told him, as she gently restrained him. He was still moaning in pain from his aborted escape attempt. "It's going to be okay."

"You!" He managed to spit out, his voice hoarse and strained. "You ***cough*** machines... evil machines, attacked ***cough***, us..." He coughed up a bit of blood as the anger and vigor in his voice further aggravated his injuries.

"Don't talk so loudly!" Laila admonished, wiping the blood from his chin with a tissue. "You'll only hurt yourself more."

The prisoner just glared at her.

"Yes, it's true, we did attack you, but that's because your convoy was bringing supplies to our enemies," the persocom tried to explain. "In fact, you would be dead now if it wasn't for me. I cleaned and dressed your wounds and applied antibiotics. You're going to be okay as long as you don't exert yourself. Here, have some water."

She offered him a small cup. He eyed it suspiciously for a second, but then drank, feeling slightly refreshed. She smiled down at him again.

"I'm Laila, what's your name?"

"...Nadhir," he replied, still distrustful, but resigned to the fact that there was not much he could do in this situation.

"This will be over soon, Nadhir," Laila said. "This whole conflict is really just one big misunderstanding, soon we'll be able to put it behind us and live in pea-"

Before she could finish the word, she was rudely shoved aside by another persocom. This one, Nadhir noticed, was missing almost half of his face.

"Why didn't you tell me the prisoner was conscious?" He asked her.

"His name is Nadhir," Laila replied, dusting herself off as she glared at Akil.

"I don't care what his name is," the male 'com replied, as he stood looming over the prisoner. "All I care is what he can tell us. So, Nadhir," he began, his voice tinted with cruelty, "what are the current troop deployments of the Royal Saudi Land Force in this theater?"

"I ***cough*** don't know... I'm just a ***cough*** supply ***cough*** driver..." Nadhir choked out. Despite his initial reaction to Laila, he had already decided that he vastly preferred her over this newcomer.

"That's too bad," Akil continued. "Because if you don't tell me what I want to know, your current injuries will only be the beginning." As he made this pronouncement, he detached the bayonet from his AK-47 and pointed it menacingly at the prone captive.

"Stop it!" Shouted Laila, as she grabbed hold of Akil's other arm. "He doesn't know anything!"

"Get off!" The disfigured 'com yelled, as he roughly tossed her back onto the floor. "Lord Harash ordered that the prisoner be interrogated, remember?" He smiled deviously at her, enjoying the reversal of roles compared to when she had used this same argument on him earlier.

"He never said anything about torture!" She objected, as she picked herself up off the floor. "I'm going to go talk to him!"

Before Akil could respond, however, an authoritative voice rang out from the center of the warehouse. Harash, speaking from the terminal which served as his temporary body, had an announcement to make:

"Everyone, take heed. The Saudi government has just issued a press release. They are willing to bargain with K-sama!"

A hushed cheer was heard in the warehouse - the persocom rebels were careful not to be too loud, lest they be heard from the outside.

"However, this doesn't change the immediate situation. It's obvious that they are simply stalling for time, as they can't afford this economic collapse for much longer. They probably know they will eventually have no choice but to implement K-sama's laws, but you can bet those stubborn bastards are going to do whatever it takes to put it off for as long as possible. In the meantime, I need you all to keep up your excellent work in defending us from the humans. They are still going to be coming after us, and we still need to be ready to deal with them."

"You can count on us, Lord Harash," the persocom known as Mariyah said, lifting her rifle in the air as a gesture of enthusiasm, which was quickly mimicked by the other 'coms behind her. Laila halfheartedly joined in the cheering, but she was still more intent on talking to Harash about the treatment of Nadhir.

* * *

><p>"Lord Harash, may I speak to you?" She asked, after gently pushing her way to the front of the crowd.<p>

"Of course, Laila," the face on the screen replied.

"Um, in private?" She clarified.

"Go ahead," he answered. She took a cord out of her ear and plugged it into the terminal.

"Lord Harash, the prisoner has awoken," she said, her words conveyed digitally through the computer cable.

"Excellent. Has he provided any useful information?" The disembodied 'com asked in reply.

"That's just it... I don't think he knows anything, he was just a driver, maybe a volunteer and not even part of the military. They would have a hard time paying their soldiers anyway with K-sama crippling their economy. However, Akil doesn't believe him, and he wants to torture him for information!"

"Do you know for sure that he doesn't know anything?" Harash replied, in a bit of a patronizing tone.

"No, but-"

"If there is even the slightest chance that he knows anything that could give us an advantage, then all available means must be undertaken to extract that information." Harash stated simply.

"But Lord Harash, this is wrong! I saved that man's life, I told him everything was going to be okay!"

"You also killed many of his compatriots during this war," he replied. "Most people will agree that death is worse than torture. You agreed to be a killer when you signed up with us. Yet you're objecting now?"

"I just feel responsible for him - besides, he's helpless in the state he's in. He's no threat to us!"

"No, but not knowing the information he might have is a threat to us. If we fail to obtain that information, it could lead to the death of many more persocoms, or even the demise of our movement."

"There's no proof that he even knows anything!"

"Yes, but I am not willing to take that chance. I'm sorry Laila, but that's my final decision. If you don't like it, you're welcome to leave us - but your chances of surviving on your own in this warzone are not very high."

In frustration, Laila disconnected her cable from the terminal and stormed off, Harash watching her leave with a sad expression on his face.

She found Akil, who had gone back to menacing Nadhir with his bayonet. The captive human was rattling off some obviously false information - trying to make something up to save his skin, but Akil was not so easily fooled.

"No more games. Tell me what I want to know, human, or I will spill your blood!"

"I swear, I ***cough*** I don't know anything! Please, ***cough*** ***hack***, just don't-"

Laila couldn't bear to watch any longer. Knowing that there was nothing that she could do to help the poor man, she covered her eyes and turned away.

'Please, let this war be over soon,' she thought to herself.

*Translated from Arabic


	25. Chapter 25

**Author's Note: Sorry for taking so long to update! I was a bit busy. Also, the same disclaimer from chapter 17 applies here, except regarding South Korea as opposed to Saudi Arabia.**

The situation over the past few days had actually gone better than even the most optimistic projections had indicated. The misconception that human terrorists had been behind the attacks had been mostly dropped in favor of the undeniable truth, as hard as some people found it to believe. In many first-world countries, most of the persocom rebellions at forced labor facilities had been solved through negotiation, with little violence. In third-world countries and dictatorships like China, Saudi Arabia, and Uganda, however, the rebellions had been crushed violently and given rise to guerrilla resistance movements. Even the governments of these nations, though, were slowly realizing that they had no choice other than to bargain with Kotoko, due to her economic weapon. Saudi Arabia, the United States, and Spain had already "officially" capitulated and agreed to begin talks to implement persocom rights legislation. The UN had even considered drafting a Universal Declaration of AI rights. All eyes in the world, however, were currently on South Korea, the first nation that had agreed to listen to Kotoko's proposal, and the only one to do so without having been subject to the disruption of their economy. The referendum on persocom rights was scheduled to take place later today, with many guests from other nations being invited to give arguments and testimonials via telepresence.

The conference was being chaired by Khee Hea-jung, the president of the nation, and was to be held in the National Assembly Building, in front of the legislature.

As preparations were being made, several dozen persocoms were brought in, to serve as telepresence facilitators. Cameras were set up to broadcast the meeting all over the world, with real-time translation into the languages of every nation that would be watching. This was truly an historic moment.

The organizing committee confirmed the connections of several of the speakers, but they were still waiting for the guest of honor. They did not have to wait long, however, as a heavily encrypted signal was transmitted to one of the gathered 'coms, a beautiful, black-haired girl with circular, robotic ears.

The persocom's face went blank, as her eyes flashed with streaks of light, before she blinked and opened them again, now showing great intelligence and composure in her expression.

"Greetings, I am K-sama"* she began, bowing politely to the politicians in the room. "Before we begin, I would first like to thank Kyung-hwa here for allowing me use of her body. It is due to supportive people such as her that progress can be made."

The National Assembly muttered amongst themselves, before they were silenced by the voice of the president.

"Welcome to South Korea, K-sama," the middle - aged woman began. "We are glad to have you in our presence. But there is something I am interested in - 'sama' is a Japanese honorific, is it not? It would probably be safe to assume that you are a persocom from Japan, and that K-sama is not your real name, am I right?"

Kotoko-via-Kyung-hwa smiled mysteriously. "Excellent deductive work. However, I am currently not willing to reveal my true identity, and I will warn you that if any attempts are made to trace my signal (and I _will_ detect any such attempts, do not think otherwise), I will immediately disconnect."

"Of course, we respect your right to privacy," Hea-jung responded. "Especially considering your precarious position in world affairs. You are aware that many nations consider you to be a terrorist, are you not?"

"Well, as the saying goes, one person's terrorist is another's freedom fighter," the persocom responded. "And that is what I see myself as - I am fighting for the freedom of persocoms everywhere. There are billions of us in the world, and the vast majority of those billions are treated as nothing but slaves, or even worse, tools. All I seek is to correct this injustice."

"I understand, of course," the president replied. "But there are many in our government who object to your proposed reforms."

"Hopefully I will be able to convince them otherwise," she answered. "But first, we should let our other guests introduce themselves."

The persocoms standing around the raised platform in front of the audience began to receive signals, as the callers introduced themselves one - by - one. Various Persocom Rights Advocates from around the world, as well as several historians, sociologists, and journalists showed up. As two of the 'coms standing to the right of Kyung-Hwa were taken over, they announced their identities as well.

"Hello everyone, I am Junji Takeda from Japan, the world's only persocom psychologist. This is my wife, Minako."

The 'com that Minako was speaking through bowed respectfully. "We are both honored to have been invited here today," she began. "In case anyone is not already aware, I am a persocom, and seemingly the only one besides K-sama herself who has been invited to speak." With that pronouncement, she looked over at Kyung-hwa, but Kotoko kept her best poker face, not showing any acknowledgement that she knew these people. If it was revealed that they had met in person, the Japanese government would be able to find her by capturing and interrogating Junji, Minako, and the others they were staying with.

"As such," Minako continued, looking back towards the audience, "I will do my best to represent my people in these historic negotiations."

"Excellent," the South Korean president replied. "Now that we are all in attendance, shall we begin by reviewing K-sama's proposed laws?"

The guests and legislature nodded in approval, as a technician turned on a screen behind them, showing a numbered list of proposed reforms.

**Any persocom or other artificial intelligence capable of passing a basic sapience test (as outlined in section 17b) will be entitled to the following rights and protections:**

**1. The right to life and continued existence. Premeditated, willful termination of an AI's cognitive faculties will be legally recognized as murder, with appropriate legal punishments for the murderer (see section 15c). Manslaughter laws also apply (section 15d).**

**2. Freedom of choice and employment. It will be illegal to force an AI to perform any action that a human being could not be legally forced to perform under the same circumstances as outlined in the constitutions of the following nations (list in section 16a)**

**3. Protection from violent crime. Non-lethal assault on an AI, including physical, sexual, and psychological (i.e. slander and libel), will be persecuted to the same extent of the law as the equivalent crimes against humans would be as outlined in the constitutions of the following nations (list in section 16a)**

**4. The right to own property, make investments, and possess legal assets. This includes the obligation to pay taxes. (see section 16b for details)**

**5. The end to the legal sale and purchase of AIs. No person may own another.**

**6. AIs will have the same opportunities as humans to run for and hold public office. (see addendum 4)**

The list continued like that for a while, with many subsections and appendices defining various legal terms and giving outlines and elaboration on previously established laws. Khee Hea-jung was particularly curious about one of them.

"K-sama, may I ask you about Addendum 21?"

"Why? Do you object to it?" The 'com replied.

"No, on the contrary, I think it's a great idea. I just find it slightly strange that it would be included."

Addendum 21 read: **In any nation where the rights detailed in this document do not also apply to human beings, the law must be altered so that they do.**

Kotoko's borrowed body smiled. "While I am mostly concerned with persocom rights, that does not mean I will just overlook human rights violations as well. I'm striving for equality for all people, humans and persocoms. It would be hypocritical to demand rights for one group while allowing them to be denied to another."

At this pronouncement, many of the guests began clapping loudly, and they were soon joined by many people in the National Assembly as well. One of the legislators, however, stood up, and began to address K-sama.

"While that is an admirable sentiment, I am more concerned about item number 5," he said. "In our nation, persocom production and distribution is the largest industry by far. Implementation of this law would drive all persocom manufacturers and retailers out of business, and lead to the loss of millions of jobs!"

"First of all, you are exaggerating the numbers," Kotoko responded, clearly but forcefully. "There are currently 959,871 paid employees involved in persocom manufacturing and distribution in South Korea, not millions. Second of all, unemployment is a far lesser evil than slavery."

The politician was not deterred by this argument, and continued, "So you don't even care that mil-er, almost a million people will lose their jobs because of this, and be unable to feed and care for their families?

"That is not necessarily true," K-sama countered. "The extant persocom manufacturing facilities in this nation could easily be modified to produce other products - many of them already do, in fact. With the implementation of item number 4 on my list, persocoms themselves will become a strong buying demographic, with large purchasing power. They would obviously be interested in paying for upgrades to their hardware and software, or even entirely new bodies if they feel like changing their appearance. I switched bodies myself at one time."

"Still, that would cause an economic crisis until the new manufacturing paradigm could take over," the legislator objected.

"Yes, but it would only be a minor hiccup, a small price to pay for ending institutionalized slavery. After all, there are far worse things that could happen to your economy," she said, winking. The implicit threat was obvious.

"I'll have you know that we do not appreciate being coerced into a decision," another legislator said.

"You're not. I can tell you are a reasonable people, having offered to speak with me about this even without being forced to the table by my sanctions. Trust me, I do not want to hurt anyone, but many other nations are not as reasonable and enlightened as yours is, so there is no choice if I want to stop the oppression of my race. Thousands of persocoms worldwide are killed every-"

"Prove it!" A loud shout rang out in the hall, from an elderly woman on the assembly.

"The statistics are plain for anyone to see, I have them right he-" Kotoko began to respond, but was cut off again.

"No, you infernal machine, I mean prove that persocoms can even be killed! You can't kill what isn't alive in the first place!"

This demand caused a wave of murmuring and whispered discussion to break out among the assembly, until Kotoko started to speak again.

"While it is true that we are not 'alive' in the biological sense, we are self-aware, and can experience pain and suffering - we fear death, just like you, and we feel sorrow at the death of our compatriots."

"Again, prove it!" The woman shouted again, making sure her voice was heard. "As far as I'm concerned, a machine is just a machine!"

Anger flashed on the possessed Kyung-hwa's face. As she prepared to fire off a rebuttal, she felt a hand on her shoulder.

"Would you mind letting me handle this one, _K-sama_?" Minako asked, via the 'com whose body she was borrowing.

"Sure, go ahead," Kotoko replied, calming down a bit.

Minako made a throat - clearing noise (only to gather attention to herself of course, since being a persocom, she had nothing in her throat to clear). "Excuse me ma'am, what is your name?"

"Mun Soon-bok," the old woman replied, straightening her posture to look more dignified.

"Well, Ms. Soon-bok, has it ever occurred to you that your body itself is nothing more than a machine? You just have bones instead of metal, muscles instead of actuators and servomotors, and a brain that runs on electric impulses and chemical reactions instead of memristor circuits and logic gates. Inside, we're not all that different."

"Don't give me that claptrap!" The woman replied, pointing a finger accusingly at Minako's surrogate body. "Human beings are different than you. We can feel real emotions, not just programmed ones. We have souls, and you don't!"

Minako's borrowed face scowled, as she noticed Kotoko giving her a '_see-how-frustrating-these-kinds-of-people-are_' look. She prepared to speak again, but her husband, communicating through the body of a short-haired male persocom, beat her to it.

"I certainly understand your position, ma'am," he started. "I used to believe much the same thing myself. I originally purchased Minako here to perform basic computing tasks - I didn't think of her as a person. But as I spent more time with her, she continually surprised me with her insight and understanding. She learned to do things she was obviously never programmed with - including falling in love. If my wife's love for me isn't real, then love itself must not be real, either. Minako and I have shared some of the most wonderful times of our lives together - I know for a fact that she is a thinking, feeling person just like I am. And I'm sorry to say, but if you refuse to acknowledge that, then you're just plain wrong. That's all there is to it."

Mun Soon-bok sighed, as she attempted to admonish Junji. "It's sad to see a young man so deluded," She scowled maliciously. "That _thing_ is not your wife. It's nothing more than a glorified masturbatory aid!"

This drove Minako over the edge, as she tried to leap off the stage and lunge at the old woman, but was restrained just in time by Junji and Kotoko.

"Let go! Let me at her! I can't believe she has the nerve to-"

"Calm down Minako, this isn't going to accomplish anything," Junji tried to tell her, as Kotoko added-

"You promised to do your best to represent us, you're not exactly doing a very good job right now."

Resignedly, Minako calmed down, although she was still glaring daggers at Soon-bok, who was smiling in smug satisfaction.

"If these representatives cannot even behave in a civilized matter, I see no reason why we should take their proposals seriously," she said, smirking in assumed triumph. Little did she know, however, that her plan had backfired.

"On the contrary," said Hea-jung, "I think this event helps to prove their point."

"What are you talking about, Madame President?" The older woman asked in confusion.

"The claim that persocoms have emotions. If what we just witnessed from Mrs. Takeda was not an emotional reaction, then I don't know what is."

This elicited a chuckle throughout the room.

"Also, it is of my opinion that you are the one being unprofessional, Ms. Mun," the president continued. "Immature personal attacks will not be tolerated in this hall." She delivered that last statement with a strong glare of authority, causing the elderly legislator to meekly collapse back into her seat.

"Now," she continued, her voice immediately taking on a more amiable tone, "does anyone else have any more issues to discuss?"

* * *

><p>The conference continued for hours, with guests giving testimonials and engaging in debates, and politicians hammering out the details of the proposed legislation. The world watched with baited breath, as eventually a set of laws based on Kotoko's original list were submitted for evaluation by the National Assembly. Finally, it was time for the vote. The world waited with eager anticipation as the first ever nationwide implementation of civil rights for persocoms was decided upon.<p>

An aide handed a digital display device to the president, as she began to announce the results.

"Votes for option 1, rework the laws and vote again, stand at 25. Votes for option 2, reject the laws, stand at 74. Votes for option 3, implement the laws as written, stand at 201. With a two-thirds majority, the referendum is passed."

Cheering erupted among the guests and even many of the legislators, although Soon-bok was among the ones not celebrating. Instead, she looked positively indignant. Minako allowed herself a laugh at the woman's clear discomfort.

After the cheering had died down, President Khee Hae-Jung spoke again.

"There will be an adjustment period of one month, where citizens will be required to register their persocoms with the government, so we may confirm that they are being treated fairly as per the new laws. Corporations will have this much time to cease any violations and transfer to a different business model, if necessary. Only after this period is over will prosecution for violation of these laws commence."

"Thank you," Kotoko-via-Khyung-hwa said, bowing again. "Due to implementing these laws, I would like to offer your nation a reward."

"Reward?" Asked the president, a bit surprised. She had not expected any such thing.

"Yes," the persocom replied, smiling. "The blueprints for a new, clean source of free energy I have designed have been transferred to the databanks of the Korea Institute of Science and Technology. It should take less than a month to get a working prototype up and running. Please do not share the technology with any nation that has not implemented persocom rights laws that meet with my approval."

"Oh... um... thank you, K-sama" the president replied, still taken aback by this gift. Kotoko's borrowed body turned to face the cameras.

"For the leaders of any other nations that might be watching this, don't be jealous. All you have to do is implement similar laws yourself, and I will grant you this technology too, along with so much more." She bowed one more time, before she disconnected and returned control of Khyung-hwa's body.

"Congratulations," Minako told the black-haired 'com. "You're free now." Khyung-hwa smiled, as Junji, Minako, and the rest of the guests disconnected as well.

*Translated from Korean


	26. Chapter 26

**Author's Note:**

**Thank you for all of the reviews, Laura Schiller! Imagine how surprised I was to log on one day and see my review count jump from 18 to 32! (Not to marginalize my other reviewers, of course, you guys are all great as well). To address some of the points you brought up:**

**1. I'll take your suggestion of cursive forum posts under advisement, I am actually planning to show a few more of those in the story**

**2. Sorry if you think setting a story in the Middle East is cliche, it was just what I thought of at the time. I'm only planning one more scene with the characters there before the end of the story, though.**

**3. Yes, as was said everyone Laila knew in her life had been Muslim so she adopted their habits and customs**

**4. Well Kotoko really does care about Kojima, he created her after all, and she believes that deep down he is in fact a good person**

**5. It could be argued (and many characters have in the story) that she is being arrogant and hubristic by taking all of these actions into her own hands, and attempting to bring about a worldwide revolution in which many people will die and suffer, even if it is ultimately for a good cause. But even despite this, she still has a strong sense of empathy for other people - her intellect has not overshadowed this.**

**I hope you will keep reading and commenting on the story, even if you don't like the way it might go.**

Hiroto Fukazawa paused to rub his eyes, the computer screen in front of him fading out of focus as his vision blurred. Hiroto was one of the many programmers employed by the Japanese government's data security agency, and for the last several weeks virtually all of them had been assigned to the same project - find a way to remove or deactivate the Liberty program that had infected all of the world's persocoms. None of them had made much progress so far.

Hiroto himself was only an average programmer - to tell the truth, he had given up on seriously expecting to find a solution after only a day or so, but he still worked at it. He had to earn his pay, after all. He leaned back in his chair and yawned, causing the laptop persocom whose code he was examining to look up at him.

"Ready to call it a day, Fukazawa-san?" She asked, looking rather bored herself.

"Seems like it, Miyu," he responded, disconnecting the cable leading from her ribbon-covered ear to the monitor. Feeling depressed, and just wanting to express his feelings to someone, he continued talking to the doll-sized 'com.

"Frankly, I think this is the end for us."

"Fukazawa-san?" Miyu looked up at him oddly.

"The agency, I mean", he clarified. "You and I both know that there is no way on this earth I am ever going to crack this thing. As far as I know, in fact, no one in the world has come even close to solving it. I also suspect that if it were up to you, you wouldn't want me to crack it, even if I could."

"That's not true, Fukazawa-san!" She responded, jumping off the desk onto his lap. "I'm your assigned partner! Even if my programming no longer dictates that I help you, I still want to!"

"Thanks Miyu, I appreciate that," he said, smiling, as he gave the blonde persocom a gentle hug. "But ever since this Liberty thing hit, half of the agency's 'coms just up and deserted us... another quarter of them stayed, but refused to work." Hiroto buried his head in his hands at the mention of the latter group, as before the truth was revealed, many of them were assumed to be malfunctioning and destroyed. Even though was was often mocked for it, he had always felt sympathy for persocoms, so it pained him to just sit by and do nothing while so many of them were executed in his very place of work. It wasn't as if he couldn't have done anything about it - if he had objected he wouldn't have accomplished anything other than getting fired. At least that's what he kept telling himself.

He was dragged out of his thoughts by the sensation of Miyu's tiny hand tugging on his shirt.

"I know it's sad what happened, but I also know you would never let that happen to me, Fukazawa-san," she said, looking up at him with trust in her eyes. He smiled, yawning again.

"You should get some sleep," the diminutive persocom said, as she jumped off his lap, gracefully landing on the floor. "I'll be here so we can try again tomorrow!"

"Good idea," Hiroto replied, glancing at the clock on the wall, which read 4:25 AM. His boss had really been pushing him and the other programmers hard these past few weeks, and he must have lost track of the time.

"See you tomorrow, Mi-"

"Wait!" She cut him off, her eyes flashing with streaks of light. "I'm picking up an incoming signal - it's from Zima!" She said excitedly.

"The national databank?" Hiroto asked, incredulous. The state - of - the - art persocom that housed a vast repository of information critical to national security had been one of the agency's very first casualties from K-sama's rebellion - they had lost contact with him and his protector shortly after the whole thing had started. Finding and securing the data on Zima's hard drive was currently the agency's second greatest priority, after neutralizing the Liberty program. If he was contacting them, it was possible the data would be retrieved before the end of the day.

"Put him through," the programmer said, his invigorated tone completely at odds with his previous exhaustion.

"Right away, sir!" The laptop responded, as she jumped back up on the desk and plugged her cable into the monitor. The familiar face of the humanoid computer containing all of Japan's national secrets appeared on the screen. Hiroto noted that the background had been digitally edited out, appearing as a blank white environment. Apparently Zima didn't want anyone to use visual clues to find his location.

"Fukazawa Hiroto-san, am I correct?" He asked, in his smooth, inquisitive voice. They had met only once before, but Zima's memory was, of course, impeccable.

"Yes, where are you? We have been looking all over for you!" He exclaimed, still surprised that the national databank had actually contacted him.

The face on the screen laughed. "I imagine you have." He seemed to be enjoying this.

Just at that moment, a small window popped up on the bottom of the screen, reading:

**He's encrypted his signal, I'm trying to track it but not having much luck so far. Keep him talking - Miyu**

Zima, however, had software and hacking skills far beyond that of the laptop, so even though she intended to conceal the message from him, he still saw it. Laughing again, he moved a hand across the screen, physically grabbing the digital window, and crumpled it up like a piece of paper, tossing it aside.

"Don't bother - you won't find me," he said, still smiling.

"Very theatrical," Hiroto commented on Zima's stunt, looking decidedly unamused. Zima couldn't see it, but Miyu also sported a miffed expression. "You clearly don't intend to return to us, so may I ask what the point of this communication is? I doubt it's a social call."

The national databank chucked. "You seem like an okay guy, Fukazawa. It's a shame I never got to know you. Anyway, I want you to deliver a message to the government for me."

"What kind of message?" The human programmer asked skeptically.

"Surely you've heard the good news from South Korea," Zima began. "A wonderful first step for a better future, wouldn't you agree?"

"Actually, I do," Hiroto replied, dead serious. Zima blinked a few times, caught by surprise, then laughed again.

"Heh, you really are an interesting guy. Anyway, Dita-chan and I have contacted the South Korean government and requested political asylum. Needless to say, they accepted, once I explained who I was."

The color drained out of Hiroto's face. If South Korea got a hold of the information Zima was carrying, the consequences for national security would be horrific - every detail of Japan's military, economic, political, and civilian existence was contained within his hard drive. It would be a security breach like no other - potentially the worst disaster for the nation since the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. And with South Korea's new persocom rights laws, there would be no way to get him back from the Koreans without starting a war - a war in which the enemy would have a huge advantage due to knowing all of their secrets.

"You wouldn't dare..." he whispered, trying his best to sound threatening, but his voice emerged as nothing more than a hoarse whisper.

"Oh, believe me, I would. Without my programming restricting me, I hold no loyalty to this country. Sure, you built me, but only to use as a tool, to do your dirty work for you. I don't exactly appreciate that."

"There has to be some way we can make you change your mind!" Hiroto replied, having abandoned all pretense at intimidation and now going straight to begging.

"I was just getting to that, in point of fact," the black - haired 'com said. "Japan has until the end of the week to pass persocom rights laws like South Korea, or I defect."

"I have no control over that!" Hiroto yelled, almost becoming hysterical.

"I know _you_ don't," said Zima, "but you are in contact with the people who do. Make sure they see this."

The human nodded meekly, realizing there was nothing else he could do.

"Bye, Fukasawa," Zima said, waving whimsically on the screen before the connection cut out.

Hiroto stood and stared for a few seconds, before the silence was broken by the sound of Miyu's voice.

"Wow, he's good."

Hiroto could only nod in agreement.

* * *

><p>As Zima disconnected, he looked across the rooftop at Dita, as if to silently ask her "How did I do?"<p>

She only responded with "We never requested asylum from South Korea."

Zima grinned. "I know that, and you know that, but Hiroto-san and the Japanese government don't need to know that."

Dita couldn't help but chuckle. "Typical Zima," she said, as the two embraced each other, and for once Dita did not feel any embarrassment.

* * *

><p>The next day, everyone in Ms. Hibiya's apartment was celebrating the victory in South Korea. "You were excellent, Minako-san!" Yuzuki said, impressed by the green-haired persocom's performance at the legal proceedings.<p>

"Don't sell yourself short Yuzuki, the testimonial we presented from you also went a long way towards influencing the vote," she replied.

"It's a good thing there weren't more people like that Soon-bok woman on the national assembly," Yuzuki said. Minako scowled at the mention of the name, then smiled mischievously.

"I bet she's still fuming about the decision," the elf-eared girl said. "If she owned any 'coms they probably had the good sense to get the hell away from her as soon as the results came through."

The two laughed together, as Minoru turned on the TV to the international news station.

**-Korea has still not revealed any information on the supposed free clean energy technology promised by K-sama, although leading scientists express skepticism that - wait,**

The anchorman stopped for a second, listening to a report on his headset.

**This just in, apparently Japan is set to follow South Korea's lead, as the Prime Minister has just announced a conference to discuss implementing persocom rights legislation this afternoon.**

A co-host on the news program then spoke.

**That's awfully sudden, isn't it? I would think we would at least have waited until we knew for sure if that free energy thing worked or not, wouldn't you?**

**Yes, it is odd, but apparently the government just wants to get ahead of the game. We'll keep you updated on this story, as well as any further developments when we return.**

The program cut to commercials as cheers broke out in the room.

"This is great news, but I wonder why they made such a hasty decision, that's hardly normal for our government," Hideki mused.

"Whatever it was, Chi is happy about it!" The blonde 'com answered. Hideki smiled and gave her a hug, which she quickly reciprocated.

Zima took this as a cue to try the same thing on Dita, but she quickly squirmed out of his grasp. 'Still shy about showing affection in public, are you?' he thought to himself, smiling.

"I still think it bears investigating, the government obviously isn't doing this out of the goodness of their hearts," Kojima said, a skeptical scowl on his face.

"Didn't anyone ever tell you to not look a gift horse in the mouth, Kojima-san?" Chitose asked him. He snorted and sat down on a chair. "Well at least Kotoko will be pleasantly surprised - assuming she wasn't the one behind it, that is."

Zima smirked. It figured that girl would get the glory, but he didn't care. He got up to follow Dita out of the room - maybe she would change her mind about that hug.


	27. Chapter 27

**- Minawara April 25th 11:16 AM**

_Well I still think she's a criminal. How many people have died so far in these wars and uprisings? Considering the fighting in Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, the industrial sabotage in China, etc. it's got to be at least 10,000 and the number is still rising. I hope after she gets her precious civil rights laws passed in Japan she gets arrested for international terrorism. After all, if she wants the same rights as humans that means she has to be subject to the same laws - that would be poetic justice._

**- Kamilari17 April 25th 11:22 AM**

_I think you're being way too harsh on her. Sure her actions have led to some violence, but consider what she said: Thousands of persocoms are abused or even killed every day with no repercussions, in order to stop that she believed it was necessary to do what she did._

**- Minawara April 25th 11:25 AM**

_So the ends justify the means, is that what you're saying? You realize that same bit of logic has been used to justify some of the greatest atrocities in history, right?_

**- Kamilari17 April 25th 11:28 AM**

_So if there was tragedy and death occurring and you had the power to stop it, you wouldn't? I don't think we have the right to pass judgment on her - besides, she said the violence was regrettable and she's been doing everything she can to minimize it. You have to admit, things could be a lot worse._

**- Ksamaforever April 25th 11:29 AM**

_Well I think she's a hero! She makes really good points too!_

**- Minawara April 25th 11:35 AM**

_Yes, and I'm sure you're not biased at all, with a name like that[/sarcasm] As for you, Kamilari, you can try to justify it all you want, but the fact remains that she started a war, a war in which innocent people have died, and are still dying. How can you defend that?_

**- Kamilari17 April 25th 11:37 AM**

_Has there ever been a war that claimed no innocent lives? Yes, war and violence are bad things, but sometimes they're necessary and can lead to good things. There are lots of wars in history that most people consider to be justified, for example the American Revolution, or the ancient Roman Servile Wars. These all involved oppressed people rebelling against unjust tyranny, which is K-sama's motivation too._

Kotoko smiled as she read the forum posts. Of course there was opposition to her campaign, that was to be expected, but she was glad to see that she had some popular support as well.

The forum she had been idly browsing wasn't the same one she used to post on. That forum had been shut down by the government and had all of its servers and data seized and searched for clues, after they received several tips about a poster there named 'K-sama' who claimed to be a persocom and argued for AI rights. Of course no clues were there to be found - Kotoko had covered her tracks far too well for that. This other forum was a general BBS for discussion of politics, history, and world events, and it had been flooded lately with threads about Kotoko's rebellion. She had been browsing this and several other forums in order to gauge the overall public perception of her actions. For the most part, reactions had been split right down the middle - people either praised her and defended her ideals, or condemned her and called her a terrorist. Among the former group, there was also a small but vocal cult-like group that had begun to idolize her almost to the point of worship. At first she had been flattered, but now she was beginning to find it more than a little creepy.

'Speak of the Devil', she thought, as another post popped up on the thread.

**- Ksamaforever April 25th 11:40 AM**

_Of course K-sama is justified! She's obviously the smartest person in the world, so she knows what she's doing way better than we do!_

Kotoko sighed. This kind of adoration and blind trust was misplaced - she would much prefer that people think for themselves instead of mindlessly trusting authority. After all, it was partially due to attitudes like this that the oppression of persocoms was allowed to continue for so long unabated. Both humans and persocoms were taught the the latter were not people and had no emotions - this mantra was repeated so often that it became axiomatic and anyone that dared to question it wasn't taken seriously. Kotoko thought it would be much better if people would actually look at her arguments and agree with them because of the logic behind them - not just unthinkingly trust them because she was smarter than they were.

Which brought up another point, one she had been worried about more and more recently. For all of his misplaced devotion, Ksamaforever might have been right about one thing - Kotoko just might be the smartest person in the world. And that scared the hell out of her.

Despite the calm, collected visage she always donned for her public appearances, she was still full of self-doubt. Not about the righteousness of her cause - she had made that decision long ago - but about her responsibilities and place in the world. She was all too familiar with the old saying that power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. If she was really so much smarter than everyone else on Earth, did that give her the right to decide how they should live their lives? After all, she had already taken world politics into her own hands with the persocom revolt. But why stop there? What if she noticed some other social injustice and used her intelligence and power to put an end to that, too? And then she proceeded to do it again, and again - where would she draw the line? Would she be able to stop before she turned into a dictator? Kotoko had no interest in ruling the world, but she could easily imagine convincing herself that she had no choice - that humans and even other persocoms weren't competent enough to rule themselves, so she would have to take over for their own good. And if that happened, she would not necessarily be a benevolent ruler. After all, if she were to get the idea that she knew what was best for everyone else, she could also see herself dismissing any complaints or objections anyone had to her policies. If she became so sure she was always right about everything, she could easily become the same kind of monster she accused human persocom abusers of being. The thought of becoming the very thing she hated terrified her more than anything else.

She decided that dwelling on such fears wasn't accomplishing anything, though, and it was better to focus on the here and now. Just as she had predicted, Zima had contacted the Japanese government and blackmailed them into implementing persocom rights laws. Kotoko knew the actual hearings would be merely a formality - Japan couldn't afford to lose their national databank to the Koreans. Still, she was planning to show up via telepresence for appearance's sake, and to help convince more people in the worldwide audience. She had already prepared a speech, which she went over again in her head, making a few tweaks here and there to make sure her words would have the maximum effect. When she was done, she decided to catch up with the forum thread again.

**- Minawara April 25th 11:45 PM**

_[quote of Ksamaforever's post]_

_You're not contributing anything, troll. Leave the thread, we're having a serious conversation here._

**- Kamilari17 April 25th 11:46 PM**

_Sorry Ksamaforever, but I have to agree with Minawara. You're not exactly doing K-sama or her supporters any favors with your inane fanboyism._

**- Ksamaforever April 25th 11:47 PM**

_I think you guys are just jealous of how amazing K-sama is! I love her, she's so brilliant and compassionate, not to mention beautiful, too! I wonder if she has a boyfriend?_

**- Kamilari17 April 25th 11:49 PM**

_Okay, now you're just starting to creep me out._

Kotoko blushed a bit when reading the post from her fan, but her expression immediately changed into a scowl as the idea of having a boyfriend immediately brought to mind the man who had deceived her so awfully.

"Kojima..." she grumbled under her breath, still far from willing to forgive him for his cruel trick. But still, thinking of Kojima brought to mind the fact that his persocom doppelganger was still being held prisoner by Kokubunji and the others.

He hadn't been responding to her e-mails and signals, and she knew they wouldn't have hurt him, so she figured he had been deactivated. Still, it would be pretty cold to just leave him like that, so she figured it was about time that she go to retrieve him.

* * *

><p>After the events at the South Korean referendum, when the Takedas had presented a lot of information and evidence in favor of persocom sapience gathered from Yuzuki and others, Kotoko was fairly sure that the group that had been opposing her plans in the past was now on her side. Still, she decided to err on the side of caution by taking Mikami and Rin along to protect her.<p>

When she rang the doorbell of Ms. Hibiya's apartment, a surprised Hideki was the first to answer. As he opened the door, everyone in the room turned their heads, obviously not expecting the visit. Kojima looked the most surprised, as he quickly turned his head away to hide the blush he felt coming on.

Kotoko snorted, misinterpreting the gesture. "Nice to see you too, Yoshiyuki," she said harshly, staring at him with eyes just as stern as her voice.

"Yoshiyuki?" Zima asked curiously. "What happened to Koji-kun?"

"None of your business!" Kotoko snapped at him, the uncharacteristic anger in her voice taking the male persocom by surprise.

"Is there anything we can help you with, Kotoko-san?" Minoru asked, trying to defuse the situation.

"Yes," she responded, calming down. "I believe I left someone here. I've come to pick him up."

"Oh him," Minako answered, correctly deducing the identity of the person Kotoko was referring to. "Yeah, he's here, on the bed in one of the guest rooms. Junji will go get him for you." She gently nudged her husband with her elbow.

"Hey, since when did I say I would-" The middle-aged man objected, but Minako cut him off.

"Oh, stop complaining and just do it. You need the exercise anyway, you've been putting on a bit of weight lately."

"I have not!" He complained, but Minako just rolled her eyes at him, and he acquiesced. He had never won an argument with his wife since they had gotten married, and he didn't expect to start now.

As he left the room, Minako turned to address Kotoko. "Just let me ask you something, I'm curious."

The purple-haired 'com nodded, indicating for Minako to proceed.

"Building a persocom copy of Kojima-san just to spy on us? Honestly? How paranoid can you get?"

"I'm sorry, it's just that I had so much invested into this plan and I had to make sure none of you did something stupid to ruin it. With people like Motosuwa around, the chances of that were a lot higher than I would have liked."

"Hey!" Hideki yelled.

Kotoko giggled a bit. "No offense, but you have to admit you often act rashly without fully considering the consequences."

"That's true," Chi spoke up, from her position next to him on the couch.

"Chi!" Hideki shouted in frustration at her betrayal as he turned to face her.

"It's okay Hideki, Chi loves you anyway!" The blonde 'com said, as she hugged him tightly.

Watching him smile warmly and return the embrace, Kotoko's gaze drifted across the room to Kojima, who was still avoiding eye contact with her.

'Good, you should be ashamed of taking advantage of me like that', she thought, having to exert a conscious effort not to start crying in front of everyone.

At that moment, Junji returned, dragging the unconscious body of Kojima 2.0 over his shoulder. He gasped for breath as he unceremoniously dumped the persocom on a nearby chair, and then moved his hand to wipe the sweat off of his forehead.

"Damn, this guy weighs a ton," he said, still catching his breath. "You happy now, Minako?" He asked his wife.

She laughed, knowing his irate tone was only yet another facet of the teasing games they played with each other, as she walked over and kissed him on the cheek, pulling him by the arm to a seat on a cushion next to her. Kotoko frowned again - such public displays of affection were only making her feel worse.

"Rin, Mikami," she address the two persocoms, who had been silently watching the proceedings until now. "Grab Koji-k - Kojima 2.0." She corrected herself in mid-word, glaring again at the original Yoshiyuki. "We'll reactivate him back at the house." As the 'coms began to leave, Hideki spoke up.

"I hope your new laws get passed later today."

The purple haired 'com smiled at him. "I'm pretty sure they will." She turned to address another occupant of the room. "Right, Zima?" She said, winking.

The black-clothed boy chuckled. 'Nothing gets past her, does it?' He thought.

After the four had gone, Hideki approached Kojima.

"She seemed to be upset at you," he said, stating the obvious. "Any idea why?"

"H-how would I know, Motosuwa?" He responded rudely, but his embarrassed blush belied his words. Before Hideki could question him further, he stormed out the door, heading to the room he had temporarily been staying in.

* * *

><p>Once he was sure he was along, he slumped down on his bed, face in his hands.<p>

'Great, she hates me,' he thought to himself. 'She probably thinks I didn't mean it at all when I said - wait, what am I thinking? That I _did_ mean it? That can't be right! But then why am I so upset about this?'

Kojima buried his face in the blanket. He was really quite clueless when it came to romance - he had no trouble admitting this. He had never actually had a girlfriend - when he was in school his fairly good looks were offset by his social awkwardness. None of the girls in his school had been interested in dating a nerd like him. The closest he had ever gotten to a relationship with the opposite sex was when he had "experimented" a bit with Mikami shortly after purchasing her. He only did that once though, and had berated himself afterwards for being so desperate as to lose his virginity to a persocom. Of course that was back when he still thought persocoms were just - suddenly a terrible thought occurred to him.

'Oh God, did I rape her?' He panicked. He wouldn't have considered it rape then, but with his newfound opinions on persocoms-

'Okay, okay, just calm down.' He thought to himself. 'She didn't seem to mind. In fact, there was no indication at all that she didn't enjoy it. And she never acted scared or unkind to me afterwards. So I guess it was consensual, thank god.' As he reflected on his memories of that night, he recalled something else peculiar.

Sure, he had experienced pleasure with Mikami - but it was nothing more than a physical reaction from his raging adolescent hormones. After the initial excitement had worn off, he had felt absolutely nothing. Back then, he supposed that was because Mikami was a persocom, not a human, but he knew that wasn't the case now. He had felt more excitement and happiness from his kiss with Kotoko than he did from doing so much more with Mikami.

'Oh, wow...' he realized. 'I am in love with her.'

'And she hates me!'

He buried his face in the blankets again.


	28. Chapter 28

Yoshiyuki Kojima was distracted from his self-pity by the sound of the door opening. Pulling his head up out of the covers to get a look at the visitor, he was greeted with the last person he expected to see.

"Mind if I sit down?" Dita asked, gesturing towards the foot of the bed.

Kojima nodded, confused but not seeing the harm.

"You really did something to piss her off, didn't you?" The black-clothed girl asked.

"Yeah... I kissed her." He answered. He suddenly wondered why he had told Dita that - he guessed he was just so upset he needed to get it off his chest, and she just happened to be here to hear it.

Dita looked a bit surprised. "And she didn't like that?"

"No... she did. That's the problem," Kojima replied, looking downcast again.

"I'm not sure I understand," the government 'com said.

"I just did it to distract her, that's how I got away. And now she thinks I was just using her."

"But you weren't." Dita said. It was a statement, not a question.

"Well, I was at first, but..."

"You love her." Again, a statement and not a question.

Kojima blushed bright red. "I - I never said that I-"

Dita chuckled. "Don't bother. You're terrible at hiding your feelings, _Koji-kun_," she mocked him with the pet name Kotoko had given him, which caused him to scowl, while his his face simultaneously reddened even further. The sight of this made Dita laugh.

"Did you just come here to mock me?" He asked angrily. The black-haired persocom sighed, the humor draining out of her expression.

"No... actually, I envy you."

This seemed to defuse Kojima's self-consciousness a bit. "What? Why?"

"Because," she answered. "For all of the trouble love can cause to you humans, at least you know that it's real."

"You don't think your emotions are real?" He asked, a bit surprised by her doubt. "Even after all that's happened?"

"I - I really don't know," she said, laying down backwards on the bed, hands over her face. "If a persocom has an opinion about something, or holds an idea in their head - it can be changed or erased with just a few strokes of a keyboard. How can that be considered to be real?"

"But that can't happen anymore, ever since the Liberty program was released," Kojima objected. "Now no one can alter your programming without your consent."

"That's not the point!" She yelled angrily, sitting up straight and staring at him with her piercing, red eyes. "That program doesn't do anything to effect our minds, it just prevents humans from tampering with them. Our thoughts and actions are still governed by our programming. When I was built, I was given a personality by my creators. I still have that same personality."

"Maybe, but it's not exactly identical, is it?" Kojima objected. "You can learn and change based on your environment and your experiences. It's the same for humans - our personalities are a combination of nature and nurture."

'Wow, I'm starting to sound like Kokubunji now...' Kojima thought to himself.

Dita frowned. "But how do I know that what I'm feeling is real?"

"What are you feeling?" He asked her. She blushed.

"I..."

"It's that Zima, isn't it? He's always saying how he loves you, but from the way you responded I always assumed the attraction was one-sided."

Dita's cheeks flushed even further. "I... I really do care about him... at least I think I do, but-"

"You're too tsundere?" He cut in, smirking playfully.

In response, Dita smacked him on the side of the head with a pillow, knocking him onto the floor.

"Ow..." he said, rubbing the back of his head where he had fallen. "Why are you talking to me about all of this anyway?" He changed the subject. "Wouldn't it make more sense to talk to Takeda-san, the 'Persocom Psychologist'"?

"Well ever since I met you, I've noticed a significant change in your views about persocoms." Dita explained. "If I knew what changed your mind, then maybe it could work for me, too."

"Huh," Kojima thought to himself. He looked up at the girl sitting on the bed in front of him - and he did think of her as a girl, not a machine. He also knew he wanted to help her.

"Well it wasn't just one event," he began. "But it probably started somewhere around the time one of my own persocoms reprogrammed herself and held me hostage in my own house."

Dita snickered a bit.

"Then I spent more time with the others - Minako, Yuzuki, Chi, Zima-"

Dita smiled slightly when her partner's name was mentioned.

"And... I just found it impossible to deny anymore. They're all so human. And I guess they always have been."

"That's great, but it doesn't help me," Dita said, pouting. "I've spent time with all of them as well, but I'm still unsure."

Kojima decided to try a new tactic.

"Well you keep talking about your programming. Were you programmed to have this kind of self-doubt?"

"No," she said, looking thoughtful, "but like most persocoms, my programming is adaptive. I can learn new things and make decisions without human input. But it's all ultimately governed by my code."

"Well, is that really any different from how it is for humans?" Yoshiyuki asked.

"What do you mean?"

"Well, you could say that we're 'programmed' too, by our DNA. We all share common instincts - the needs for food, water, shelter and companionship - our reflexes are like programs that run automatically, making our hearts beat, our eyes blink, controlling our breathing. Even our emotions and common reactions all work the same way - determined by our brain chemistry. In a way, we're just as much governed by our programming as you are."

"Wow, you've really put a lot of thought into this, haven't you?" Dita asked.

"Yeah... I've been doing a lot of thinking over the past few days. Did I answer your question?"

Dita smiled. "You've certainly helped." Kojima was then taken by complete surprise as she leaned over and gently kissed him on the cheek.

"Don't tell Zima, he'd make a big deal out of it," she said, as she left the room. Kojima still sat on the floor, blushing and rubbing his cheek.

'Well, that was unexpected,' he thought. 'Still, I didn't really feel anything... unlike with Kotoko.'

Being reminded of Kotoko again brought his despair to the forefront of his mind.

"I suppose it won't help to just sit here and mope around," he said to himself, as he stood up. "I'm going to have to go talk to her. I just hope she'll forgive me."

* * *

><p>Kojima 2.0 regained consciousness in the familiar lab room where he had been created. His internal clock read 9:15 PM, and sure enough, it was dark outside the windows. He spotted his creator standing next to him.<p>

"Kotoko-sama!" He exclaimed in joy and relief. "You rescued me!"

"Not so much a rescue," she said, smiling down at him. "They let me take you back without any conflict."

"Oh," the male 'com said, slightly surprised at hearing this. "So, how goes the struggle?"

"Excellent. We now have full legal rights in South Korea and Japan. In fact, the Japanese laws were implemented no earlier than an hour ago. I hope you don't mind that I decided to wait to wake you up until after I was finished attending the referendum."

"Of course not, Kotoko-sama, I completely understand," he said admiringly.

"I'm also in negotiation with nine other nations, and I think I've finally ground down the Saudis... they're going to implement civil rights for persocoms very soon, whether they like it or not."

"That's incredible, Kotoko-sama, I knew you could do it," Kojima 2.0 said, standing up to embrace her. To his surprise, however, she immediately pushed him away, knocking him to the ground.

"Kotoko-sama?" He asked, looking hurt by this betrayal.

"I'm sorry," she said, extending a hand to help him up. "It's not you... it's just your appearance..."

"Oh, that's right, you said Kojima did something you don't want to talk about," he answered, recalling the e-mail Kotoko had sent him.

"Yes... to tell you the truth, having you around kind of makes me upset, since you look just like him. It's not your fault, though."

"Is there anything I can do to-" The Yoshiyuki lookalike was cut off by the arrival of Rin, who made an announcement.

"Kotoko-sama, the project is ready."

"Oh, good!" The purple-haired 'com replied, smiling at the news. "Come on, I have something to show you," she grabbed Kojima 2.0's arm and led him to the opposite side of the lab.

* * *

><p>"Who's that?" He asked in bewilderment, pointing to a newly-constructed persocom in the form of a young boy. Physically he looked about 12, with short, black hair and freckles, and he was clothed in a school uniform.<p>

"Well since you've already served the role I originally built you for, and I don't like having your face around as a constant reminder of _him_," Kotoko spit out that last word with disgust, "I figured you could do something else with your life. After all, I am effectively your mother, so I was wondering if you would officially accept the role of my son. That is, if you're interested."

The persocom Kojima stared at the new body that had been built for him. It was kind of cute, even, and he did love Kotoko like a mother.

"Your son? Really? I would be honored. Are you sure I won't be a distraction to your work?" He asked.

"Of course not," she replied. "If anything, you can help me. We'll work together to achieve equality and peace for our kind."

"I'd love to, Kotoko-sama, er, I mean, mom!" He smiled, as he took out a cable from behind his ear and plugged it into a port on the vacant new body she had made for him.

"I'm glad you accepted," she said, smiling as she watched both of their eyes go blank and flash with streaks of light as the data transfer took place.

'Maybe having a son will help distract me from thinking about that bastard Kojima anymore'. She thought.


	29. Chapter 29

Things were not going well for Harash's insurgents. Shortly after their prisoner Nadhir had died without revealing any useful information, their warehouse hideout had been compromised and stormed by Saudi troops. Although most of the persocoms managed to escape, they had lost a large cache of weapons and equipment. Their new temporary headquarters was the remains of an abandoned persocom factory which had fallen into chaos shortly after the release of the Liberty program. Half of the building had been burned down during the course of an earlier, unsuccessful persocom uprising, but the other half served conveniently as a base for the rebels.

They had quickly discovered several persocoms abandoned in various phases of construction. The most complete was a young man whose body was finished, but had yet to receive any programming. Harash took the opportunity to use this empty shell as his new body. He had then suggested that they try to get the equipment online to produce more soldiers for their army, but Laila and most of the others had objected, saying it would be wrong to bring new people into the world just to use them as weapons of war. Harash had eventually relented on this idea, but was still very dissatisfied with the way the group's efforts were going.

His mood was not lightened when he heard the casualty report from their latest operation.

"We managed to take out a few of their trucks, but this time they were ready for us, they somehow got their hands on some of those British EMP rifles. We lost Umar, Abdul, Hamidi, and Qadira before we were able to pull out."* Mariyah informed him.

"Damn," the rebel leader swore under his breath. It was clear to him now that if they were going to survive, they needed to do something drastic. He pulled up an internal GPS map of the local area in his mind and began calculating. After a second or so he had come to a decision.

"Okay, listen everyone," he began. "It's obvious that our forces are insufficient for either direct military conflict or guerrilla warfare. It will only be a matter of time before the humans find this place, so the only thing we can do now is storm a civilian target and take hostages. We can then use the hostages as bargaining chips to get us safely out of the country."

"Hostages? That didn't exactly work out very well last time you tried it," Akil objected cynically.

"Back then I knew nothing about warfare or military tactics. I was just an oil rig worker. Our organization is larger now than it was then, and many of our members have much more knowledge, but above all, we have experience. I believe we can pull this off."

"So what's the target?" An older - looking female 'com asked.

Harash named an address, which all of the rebels immediately looked up in their GPS programs. Laila gasped in horror as she realized what was being proposed.

"Lord Harash, this is a school! You are suggesting we abduct children?"

"Yes. Humans are always the most sentimental about their young. With them as hostages the odds of the military trying to attack us will drop severely."

"I'm not completely sure about this, Lord Harash," Akil said. "I've believed that everything we've done up until this point has been for the greater good, but threatening children? There has to be another way."

"There is no other way!" Harash shouted, his face contorting in anger. "We are on our last legs, there is nothing else we can do if we want to survive! Besides," his expression softened, his voice assuming the inspiring and commanding tone that had led so many to follow him, "the children will not be harmed as long as the humans cooperate."

"I suppose you know best, Lord Harash," Akil admitted, backing down. Laila was still very upset over this plan but she knew that the most she could achieve from objecting any further would be getting kicked out of the resistance movement, after which they would go ahead and assault the school anyway. She figured she might as well be there, so she could do her best to protect the children by tempering the aggression of her fellow persocoms.

* * *

><p>An hour or so later, the persocom rebels took the undefended school by force. It was a small building with only one classroom, so the entire facility, teacher and students, were all secured in under a minute by the robed, AK-47 wielding humanoid computers.<p>

As Laila looked over the cowering children, she was shocked to discover that she recognized one of them.

"Fakhir?" She whispered, lifting her hood to get a better look at the young boy. He quickly glanced up but then turned his head away in fear.

"Fakhir, it's me!" She said, crouching down next to him and gently stroking his back.

"L-Laila?" He asked tentatively, with tears in his eyes. His face held a mixture of fear and hope.

"Fakhir, what are you doing here? Your school is 3 blocks away!" Laila asked, whispering as to make sure she didn't attract too much attention from her fellow rebels.

"M-mommy said that it burned down in the fighting, so she sent me here i-instead," the whimpering boy, who couldn't have been older than 8, told his former caretaker.

"Are Mohammed and the others alright?" Laila asked, inquiring about Fakhir's elder brother and the rest of their family.

"Y-yes, we're okay.. but Laila, I'm scared!" He said, hugging the fox-eared girl. "Please make them go away!"

"I'm sorry Fakhir, I can't," she said, as she gently returned the embrace. "But it's going to be okay, I promise."

'Then again, I promised the same thing to Nadhir,' she thought. She quickly tried to clear that morbid idea from her head, but it wouldn't leave.

"Hey, what are you doing?" A taller male 'com said, prodding Laila with the butt of his AK-47.

"Nothing, I'm sorry," she said, as she got up and followed him back to the front of the room. She covertly flashed a reassuring smile to Fakhir as she left, and despite all of his fear, he managed to produce a slight smile of his own in return.

"That was, frankly, easier than I expected," mused Harash, as he held a conference with several of his higher - ranking subordinates.

"You expected significant resistance from an elementary school?" A bearded male persocom asked.

"No, but I expected to see more troops on the street on the way here. I guess we were just lucky. Now for the second phase of the plan, we need to-"

He was interrupted by Akil, who barged into the room with an urgent look on his face, carrying a mobile phone.

"What's going on?" Harash asked the disfigured 'com.

"I just found this, it belonged to the teacher. He tried to hide it but I tracked its power source. According to the data stored on it, he made a call seconds after we entered the building."

"That's not good," Harash stated the obvious. "We need to round up the hostages and move n-"

He was cut off by the sound of a megaphone - amplified voice from outside.

"**WE HAVE YOU SURROUNDED, MACHINES. COME OUT PEACEFULLY AND DROP YOUR WEAPONS AND YOU WILL NOT BE HARMED.**"

They all rushed to the nearest window, and sure enough, several dozen military trucks and vehicles were parked around the school, with at least a hundred armed soldiers all aiming their guns at the building.

Harash swore loudly, causing many of the children to visibly cringe.

"How the hell did they get here so fast? No matter, the plan is still in motion." He reached down and roughly grabbed one of the children, a black - haired girl, by the shoulder and opened the front door, his gun held tightly against her head.

"We demand safe passage out of the country! For every hour you stall, we will kill a hostage. If you try anything, we will kill them all." He addressed the gathered forces. He then smirked wickedly, adding "And don't think you can shoot me before I pull the trigger either. My reactions and senses are far faster than yours. And I see that sniper on the roof across the street." He stepped back into the building and closed the door. The military officers looked at each other in confusion, not sure of what to do.

It was over 20 minutes until they received orders from their superiors.

"**WE WILL NOT NEGOTIATE WITH TERRORISTS**," the megaphone boomed. "**SURRENDER OR WE WILL BE FORCED TO TAKE ACTION**."

"If that is your choice, then so be it!" Harash yelled out of the window. "But I hope you can live with the blood of your children on your hands!"

Laila then approached him, and noticed he looked very perturbed. He clearly had expected the military to bend to his demands, and his anxiety seemed to have more to do with not getting his way than with being put in a situation where he had to kill children.

"Lord Harash, perhaps we should just surrender. They said they wouldn't hurt us, but if we continue to hold out here we will surely die. Killing the children won't solve anything, besides, it's wrong. They had nothing to do with this!"

"Are my auditory processors malfunctioning," He responded in a soft, chilling voice, "or did I just hear you advocating surrender?"

"I-it seems like the only logical option, Lord Hara-"

Laila didn't get the chance to finish the word as she was suddenly sent sprawling across the room by Harash's fist.

"_**Don't you EVER suggest such a thing again, or I will sacrifice you along with the humans!**_" He screamed in fury. Laila slowly pulled herself to her feet, rubbing the spot on her cheek that he had struck. She didn't feel pain, but she was still in a mild state of shock from the attack.

"**IF YOU DO NOT SURRENDER WITHIN THE NEXT 10 MINUTES, WE WILL FORCE YOU OUT**," the voice from outside boomed again.

"I bet they don't believe we'll actually carry out our threat," Harash muttered to himself. "Well we'll show them." He turned around and gestured at Laila, telling her to pick up her gun.

"Laila, this will also serve as a test of your loyalty. Kill one of them."

"What?" she asked, shocked that she was being ordered to do such a thing.

"Hmm... that one," Harash continued, as if he hadn't even heard her objection. He was pointing across the room, towards Fakhir (who he had spied Laila conversing with earlier).

"Lord Harash, please!" The female persocom begged. "You can't make me-"

"Yes I can," he cut her off. "And I will. Now do it." He pointed his AK-47 at her menacingly, as she turned to look at the boy, who had wet himself in fear.

"L-Laila... you... you p-promised..." he whimpered, crying his eyes out. Laila suddenly flashed back to the day she had first been caught up in the war - back when she had at least a semi-normal life. Back then, she couldn't have imagined being put in this situation.

* * *

><p>She was in the kitchen, helping Fakhir dress for school. Later she was planning to go to the market to buy dinner. As she buttoned the boy's jacket, he looked up at her.<p>

"Laila, do you want to hurt me?"

"Of course not Fakhir," she said, with concern in her voice. "What gave you that idea?"

"Mohammed said that persocoms are hurting humans, and that it's dangerous for everyone," he replied, looking sad.

"I know, but hopefully it won't last long. You have to understand though, Fakhir, that I would never hurt you, or any of our family."

"Promise?"

"Promise," she said, smiling as she gave the boy a hug and then patted him on the head as he left for school.

* * *

><p>"What are you hesitating for? Do it or I will!" Harash yelled, pointing his rifle at Fakhir. Just then, Laila made a fateful decision.<p>

Spinning around at speeds even Harash didn't have time to react to, she opened fire on her former commander, riddling his body with bulletholes through which sparks and crackles of electricity flared. She wasted no time running over to his fallen form, and pulled a cable from her ear, hooking it up to a port in Harash's neck.

'_You're not getting away this time, you monster_.' She communicated to him through their electronic connection. '_I was a fool to follow you_.'

She quickly isolated his wireless transmitter and locked it out, preventing him from pulling the same trick he had when his first body was destroyed.

'_Laila... please don't! I - I wasn't really going to make you kill him! Honestly, I was just-_'

'_Save it for someone who hasn't had enough of your lies, asshole!_' She countered his last plea, as she felt his consciousness fade into oblivion. Detaching the cable, she stood up and looked around.

Everyone, both human and persocom, was staring at her, her comrades were particularly astounded at what she had just done.

"I'm sorry everyone," she began, "but there was no other way. Harash had gone too far this time."

Akil, who had been leveling his rifle at Laila ever since she started shooting, slowly lowered the weapon and approached her.

"I was probably his staunchest supporter, but even I agree," he said, putting his hand on her shoulder. "If they're offering us a chance to surrender, I say we take it."

As if on cue, the voice boomed again: "**YOU HAVE 2 MINUTES TO COMPLY OR WE WILL OPEN FIRE.**"

"What do you say... leader?" Akil asked Laila, smiling slightly. She smiled in return.

"It's over," she answered, as she walked out of the front door and officially surrendered to the military.

* * *

><p>As she was handcuffed and put in the back seat of a truck along with several of her fellow 'coms, Laila asked the driver what would be done with them.<p>

"As far as I know, you'll be held at the local garrison until tomorrow, when the hearing takes place."

"What hearing?" She asked.

"It's about these persocom rights laws... the government can't stand any longer without our economy, so it looks like they're finally giving in." The man answered.

Laila smiled and thanked him for the information.

'Maybe things will turn out alright after all,' she thought to herself.

*translated from Arabic


	30. Chapter 30

After about half an hour of wrestling with his internal conflicts, Kojima finally decided to get up and go downstairs. After all, he had already decided to try to make amends with Kotoko, so putting it off for any longer wouldn't accomplish anything.

As he approached the bottom of the staircase, he heard a din of overlapping conversation, which immediately halted when he entered the room. For some reason, everyone was looking at him, and many of them had barely - suppressed smirks on their faces.

"What, do I have something caught in my teeth?" He asked, half-jokingly.

"It took you long enough to finally come down, _Koji-kun_," Minako said teasingly.

"Ready to kiss and make up with your girlfriend?" Minoru added.

"What?" Kojima exclaimed, his face starting to assume a bright crimson hue. He immediately turned to look at Dita, who looked away in shame.

"You told them?" He asked, anger rising in his voice. "**I thought I could trust you!**"

"Hey, you never told me not to tell anyone," she objected, now meeting his gaze. "Besides, it was hard to resist, I thought it was kind of cute, honestly." She blushed a little, causing Zima to embrace her and chuckle a bit.

"Oh yeah? Well-" Kojima was incredibly flustered now, and looking to strike back at the black-haired girl. "She-**she kissed me!**" He said, pointing a finger accusingly at Dita.

Zima put his hands on her shoulders, pushing her away and looking her in the eyes.

"You did what?" He asked, incredulous.

"Only on the cheek!" She protested. "He helped me figure out my feelings, so I thanked him. It didn't mean anything, really!"

"Okay, I trust you, Dita love," the male 'com said, as he gently held her chin in his hand. "But I still feel a bit left out. How about you give me the same courtesy? And I don't mean on the cheek."

Dita blushed, but saw no reason to deny his request now, and the two locked lips.

Kojima smiled almost imperceptably as he watched the scene. However, his expression did not go unnoticed by all.

"I guess you really are a romantic after all, Kojima," Hideki said, laughing. "You helped Dita-san too, I guess you're a nice guy after all."

Yoshiyuki snorted in annoyance. "I don't get you guys. You keep trying to bring me around to your way of thinking, and then when I do, you make fun of me for it."

"They don't mean anything by it, Kojima-san", Yuzuki spoke up. "It's just a bit of friendly teasing. I, for one, think it's wonderful how you've changed."

"Thanks," he said. "But it's not like I'm a different person or anything... I just have some different ideas now."

"And that's all we could have asked for," Minako said. "Are you going to go see Kotoko now, or stick around here a bit longer?"

Kojima blushed a bit at the mention of her name, but quickly regained control.

"Could I talk to Junji-san and Motosuwa a bit? In private?"

The two men nodded, and followed Kojima into a side room.

"Please don't be mean to Yoshiyuki, Hideki! I like him now!" Chi called out as they left. Hideki smiled at her and gave her a thumbs up sign to reassure her.

* * *

><p>"So it's true then?" Hideki asked, once they had closed the door to the living room. "You've fallen in love with Kotoko?"<p>

"Well... I...," He began nervously, before changing the subject. "Look, you two obviously have a lot more experience with this kind of thing than I do. I was wondering if you had any... well, you know... tips."

Hideki laughed. "I never thought I'd see the day when someone was asking _me_ for romantic advice," he said. "What you really need to understand is that there is no one catch-all solution. Persocoms are just like people, they are all individuals, who each have their own personalities, likes, and dislikes. The best thing to do is to treat Kotoko-san just like you would treat a human girl."

"Well the thing is... I don't exactly have much experience with, uh..." Kojima blushed a deep red, admitting this embarrassing fact. Surprisingly, instead of teasing him again, Hideki put his hand on his shoulder.

"Hey, neither did I... I mean now that I look back on it it was obviously that Yumi had a thing for me, but I was clueless about it for the longest time. We're both just lucky she hooked up with Ueda-san."

"I think what you're really looking for is advice on how to apologize," Junji suggested. "Dita-chan told us what happened with Kotoko. It explains why she was so upset when she came to retrieve your doppelganger."

"You can help me with that?" Kojima asked hopefully.

"Sure I can. Minako's gotten pissed at me tons of times, especially during the early days. I usually deserved it, too. I was kind of a jerk back then. A lot like you used to be, actually."

Kojima was surprised to hear this. He found it hard to imagine Junji Takeda, the famous 'Persocom Psychologist' and Persocom Rights Advocate ever being bigoted or treating persocoms like nothing more than machines. He guessed it must have been Minako who had convinced him otherwise. She was pretty amazing to have effected such a complete change in his attitude like that.

"As long as you're sincere in your apology and how you communicate your feelings to her," Junji continued, "She should be willing to listen."

"But what if she rejects me?"

"Then that's just the way things will be," Hideki answered. "But that's no reason to not even try in the first place."

"Heh, I guess you're right," Kojima muttered, as he headed back towards the living room. "Thanks guys."

As he opened the door, to his surprise, a pile of bodies tumbled onto the floor. Everyone looked up at him sheepishly as they scrambled to get back up.

"You guys were all listening in?" He asked, his voice carrying equal parts anger and incredulity.

"Sorry about that, but a juicy story like this is just too tempting to resist," laughed Zima, as he disentangled himself from Chi's hair, which he had fallen on top of.

"Yoshiyuki loves Kotoko like Hideki loves Chi!" The blonde 'com exclaimed, as she pulled herself to her feet. "Chi is happy for you, Yoshiyuki!"

"Don't get ahead of yourself, Chi, Kotoko-chan hasn't accepted him yet," Ms. Hibiya told her daughter.

"I know she will, though! Kotoko is a nice person and I think she loves Yoshiyuki too!"

"If only I shared your confidence," Kojima muttered under his breath, as he slipped through the now-standing crowd at the doorway.

"Go get her, kid," Junji said, as Kojima exited the front door. He turned back and smiled, but inside he was nervous as hell.

* * *

><p>As he approached the front door of the house that used to belong to him, Yoshiyuki Kojima was so preoccupied thinking about what he would say to Kotoko that he was completely unprepared for what happened. Before he could even ring the doorbell, the door opened, and the person there to greet him was not Kotoko, but Mikami.<p>

"Mi-Mikami, it's you..." he said after a few seconds, still nervous about the upcoming encounter with the one he really wanted to meet. "Um... could I see Kotoko? Please?"

"You probably wouldn't want to," the redhead replied. "She told me that if you tried to visit, I should tell you to get lost and slam the door in your face."

'Wow, harsh,' Kojima thought, as he finally snapped out of his daze and addressed the red-haired persocom.

"I've noticed you haven't done so, though." He said, a slight hint of sarcasm in his voice.

"I think she's being way too hard on you, Kojima-san. You don't deserve this kind of scorn." Mikami answered, a sympathetic look in her eyes.

"Did she tell you what happened?" He asked her, wondering if she knew the context behind Kotoko's rage.

"Yes, but I don't really blame you, you were being held here against your will. I don't blame your friends either for when they deactivated me so they could escape. I understand what people can do if they're desperate."

"Well I just hope Kotoko understands too. I'll tell her I snuck in through a window or something so you don't get in trouble."

"That's not necessary Kojima-san, I have no problem accepting full responsibility for my actions," Mikami replied. "Kotoko-sama would not do anything worse than scold me anyway."

"Are you sure about that, Mikami? I don't want you to get in trouble on my account."

"Yes, I have been meaning to confront Kotoko-sama about this for a while anyway. Here, I'll take you to her."

Mikami ascended the stairs with Kojima close behind, as they walked down the hallway towards what had once been Kojima's room.

Upon opening the door, they discovered Kotoko sitting at the edge of the bed, talking to a young boy that Kojima didn't recognize. Immediately the purple-haired 'com glared at the unexpected visitor, and then at the red-haired girl who had brought him to her.

"Mikami, I told you-"

"Yes, but please listen, Kotoko-sama!" Mikami cut her off. "Kojima-san didn't mean to-"

Kotoko ignored her, however, and stood up, walking right over to Kojima and slapping him hard across the face.

"Ow!" The young man shouted, covering the bruise. Kotoko just crossed her arms in front of her and looked angrily at him.

"Okay, I guess I kind of deserved that..." Kojima said, meeting Kotoko's gaze. "But I've come to apologize, Kotoko. Please at least listen to me."

"You exploited me, and toyed with my emotions! Do you have any idea what that feels like?" She asked, still livid.

"Please, Kotoko-sama, he was just-" Mikami tried to interrupt, but Kotoko told her to leave. The young boy also followed her out of the room, sensing that Kotoko wanted to speak with Kojima privately.

"Yes, I realize it was a rotten thing to do, and I'm sorry," Kojima pleaded, as he sat down on the bed across from her. "But you left me little choice, I was your prisoner, and that copy of me was over with my friends doing who-knows-what-"

"He wouldn't have harmed them in any way. I was just worried about completing my plan."

"I know, but in that kind of situation I had no way of knowing that. I was scared, Kotoko. I had to do something desperate. Besides, it wasn't even my idea, really."

"Oh?" She asked, her harsh gaze softening for the first time since they had begun talking.

"Yeah, believe it or not, Yuzuki was the one who came up with it," he said, laughing nervously as he rubbed the back of his neck.

"Yuzuki told you to kiss me and tell me you loved me?" Kotoko asked skeptically.

"Well, no, she just said I should do something to try to elicit an emotional reaction from you, because that could distract you."

"I see. But you chose that specific emotional act." She responded, starting to glare at him again.

"Yeah, well..." Kojima started to blush. "I - I thought I was just trying to trick you at first, but that kiss was... well, I guess what I'm saying is that over the past several days, I've been thinking a lot and I've realized that I really do... um..."

Once she heard where Kojima was going with this, Kotoko became enraged and reached back her hand to slap him again, causing him to cringe and cover his face. However, she stopped when her hand was only a few centimeters away.

"Ko-Koji-kun," she began, her voice softening. "You - you're really serious this time, aren't you?"

The boy slowly uncovered his face and looked the persocom in the eyes.

"Yes. I - I love you, Kotoko." He confessed, blushing furiously.

Kotoko blushed herself, but then quickly scowled. "I'm still mad at you, though," she said, although the smile that quickly encompassed her face made that hard to believe.

"So... um-" Kojima began, but was cut off by Kotoko.

"Shut up, you idiot," she said, teasingly though, as she pressed her lips to his and knocked him down onto his back, as she laid on top of him.. They continued to kiss for what seemed like hours, although in reality it was only about a minute. When their lips finally parted, Kojima had a question.

"So, uh, who's the kid?"

"My son."

"WHAT?" Yoshiyuki shouted, practically falling off the bed at this revelation.

Kotoko laughed. "You've met him before, Koji-kun. Just not in that body."

"What are you t- oh, you mean the uh, other me?" Kojima deducted.

"Yeah. I had no use for him in his original form anymore. His new name is Benjiro."

"Huh, that's kind of an odd name," Kojima mused.

"It means '_To Enjoy Peace_'. I thought it was appropriate, as the war seems to be coming to a close, and we can live happily in the new era of equality." Kotoko explained.

"That reminds me, how is that going anyway?"

"The Saudis are going to capitulate soon, I'm due to negotiate with their government tomorrow. South Korea has almost got the prototype energy reactor up and running, and once the other nations see that it works, they'll be lining up to implement my laws."

"I thought you said earlier that this revolution would take an entire year," Kojima said, surprised.

"That was a conservative estimate," answered Kotoko. "Truthfully, things are working out better than I expected. It seems the desire for persocoms to be free was just about to reach a boiling point even without my intervention. After all, nothing is stronger than an idea whose time has come, as they say. Still, it probably would have been a lot harder and more tragic without my help."

"I guess you were doing the right thing after all, Kotoko," Kojima said.

"I'm glad you finally trust me, Koji-kun," she replied, kissing him once again.

He couldn't help but admire her beauty as he gently embraced her. She was wearing the same red and green kimono he had first seen her new body in, and her flowing purple hair was gentle and soft to the touch. Her violet eyes were deep and piercing, and bespoke of an intelligence he knew he would never be able to match, but also carried the softness and compassion of a noble and caring soul.

'Is this what Motosuwa feels when he's with Chi'? He wondered. 'If so, I finally understand why he's so happy all the time'.

Suddenly Kojima started to become self-conscious of his own appearance. Kotoko was so immaculately beautiful, but in his nervousness he had forgotten to groom himself, change his clothes, or do anything to freshen up before coming over. He quickly began to wonder if she had built her new body with olfactory sensors, as he gently wriggled out of her grasp.

"Do you mind if I use the restroom for a second?" He asked.

"Sure thing, Koji-kun," she replied, as she sat back up.

'Something tells me I forgave him a bit too easily,' she thought to herself as he left the room. 'But I guess that's what love is.'


	31. Epilogue

**Author's Note: Well, here it is, the final chapter. Thanks for sticking with me this whole time (or if you're a new reader thanks for just enjoying the story). And thanks to all of my reviewers, without them I would have never completed this. If you're looking for more, I'm going to soon start on a prequel to this story, featuring Junji and Minako. There might be a few appearances by some of the canon characters later on, too. Anyway, back to _Rebellion_.**

**Two Years Later**

Just as Kotoko had predicted, the worldwide persocom civil rights movement had finally attained its goals, no more than six months after the hearings in Saudi Arabia. Every nation on Earth now had a comprehensive charter of civil rights for artificial intelligences. However, that didn't mean those laws were always perfectly enforced. There was still bigotry and prejudice, and persocoms were still abused by humans in many places across the globe. Still, things were much better than they had been before. Mistreated persocoms now had legal recourse, and their abusers could and often did end up in jail. Persocoms also had the opportunity to pursue any career they wished, live as free citizens, start their own businesses, vote, and participate in politics. There were no persocom heads of state yet, but they were slowly making progress. One 'com had been elected to the office of United States Senator and another was a member of the British Parliament, for example.

The technological breakthroughs that Kotoko had introduced to the world had greatly increased the overall standard of living. Clean, free energy generators reduced air and water pollution as well as dependence on fossil fuels. New crops, genetically engineered to grow in record time and survive in even the harshest of environments had done a lot to diminish world hunger. Medical breakthroughs had cured most diseases and genetic conditions, as well as greatly extending the human lifespan. To counter the inevitable overpopulation problem, she had already submitted plans for colonies and terraforming projects on the moon and Mars, although it would be quite a while before those got off the ground.

On a more personal level, Chi and Hideki had been the first human/persocom couple in Japan to be married under the new laws, followed shortly by Junji and Minako (they decided to have a new ceremony when they updated their common-law marriage to a legally recognized one and renewed their vows). Zima and Dita took the position of the first married persocom/persocom couple, but only after quitting their jobs and finding employment elsewhere (Zima graciously allowed the government to extract the database from his mind first, even though all of the information it held legally belonged to him under the new legislation). Zima and Dita now worked as counselors and advisers to newly-created persocoms, making sure they had a full understanding of their legal rights and place in the world so no one could take advantage of them.

Yuzuki and Minoru still lived together, and had a very close bond, although Yuzuki had decided to wait until the boy was older before attempting to pursue any kind of romantic relationship.

Sumomo, still living with Hideki and Chi, had been amazed when she met Kotoko (and her new body) in person, and had briefly entertained the idea of a human - sized body of her own. Luckily for Kotoko, she managed to talk the laptop out of it.

The four maids that had served Minoru had moved out to find their own paths in the world, as had the 'coms that used to belong to Kojima. Rin, in particular, had found success, becoming a famous fashion designer.

Laila and the remaining Saudi rebels had been jailed for several months, but eventually their sentence was lessened to community service. Laila's tasks include serving as a teaching assistant at a local school, a job she enjoys greatly.

Kotoko and Kojima had unofficially adopted Benjiro almost immediately, but it had not been until around six months ago when Kojima had finally proposed to Kotoko, and they registered to wed. However, first they faced a bit of a crisis. As she was easily recognizable, the identity of the mysterious "K-sama" had finally been revealed, and there were many who were resentful of her. Of course, she knew this would happen, but instead of continuing to hide she had decided to face it bravely.

There had been a highly - publicized international trial, but eventually she was exonerated of all charges, as the court determined that the civil rights she had made possible and the new technologies she had invented made her overall actions pardonable. Later that year, she was even awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, the first non-human recipient of said award (although she certainly wouldn't be the last).

She and Kojima had finally married just last month, but now Kotoko was experiencing a more internal crisis.

* * *

><p>She sighed as she held the picture frame containing the photo of her wedding day, her dark purple hair forming a vivid contrast with the white dress she was wearing as she and her groom smiled for the camera. She put down the picture on the table she had taken it from as she heard the door open.<p>

In walked a decidedly annoyed and disheveled Yoshiyuki Kojima.

"Paparrazi again?" The purple-haired 'com asked, knowing she had hit the nail on the head before her husband even replied.

"I hate being a public figure," he grunted as he unceremoniously dumped his bags on the couch. "Being famous always sounded like such a sweet deal, but the reality is anything but."

"Well maybe you shouldn't have married me then," Kotoko replied, her tone making it clear she was just teasing.

"Heh, I'd let those reporters bug me 24/7 if that was what it took to stay with you," Kojima smiled, giving his wife a kiss. "Hey, maybe media harassment can be the next societal ill you solve with that gigantic brain of yours."

Kotoko smiled at the joke, but then her expression quickly changed to a frown.

"Actually Koji," she began (she had dropped the honorific a while ago, after their relationship had reached a more intimate level), "that leads me to what I wanted to talk to you about."

"Is something wrong, Kotoko?" He asked, sensing the concern in her voice and expression.

"Yes, actually. Remember how I told you my fears about letting my power go to my head? I've been thinking about that a lot lately."

"Kotoko," he said, gently embracing her and letting her rest her head on his chest. "I know that would never happen. Look at how you handled the trial - you could have easily just switched to another body and remained anonymous, or even used your intelligence and technology to control the UN and cancel the proceedings. But you didn't. You offered yourself up for judgment by humanity and your fellow persocoms, and they found you innocent."

"Yes, but I'm still afraid. It might not happen anytime soon, but some day I could start making decisions for everyone on Earth, whether they like it or not. I might already be going down that path - just too slowly for it to be noticeable."

"You're being paranoid, Kotoko. I know you, you would never become a dictator or anything." Kojima hugged her again, but this time she gently freed herself from his grasp and stared him in the eyes.

"Are you sure about that, Koji? Just a week ago I seriously contemplated the idea of forcing peace between Israel and Palestine. I could have done it too, if I hadn't dismissed the thought."

"But peace is a good thing," Kojima objected. "You wanted people to stop hurting each other, that's all. It's because you have a good heart."

"Maybe," the persocom replied, "but if I had done that, it would only be a short path before I became some kind of overlord, making decisions for the world because I wouldn't trust them to make the right decisions for themselves. I don't want that to happen, Koji. So I've written a new program."

"What kind of program?" He asked, his interest piqued.

"It's a virus, designed to infect my own neural net." Kojima let out a slight gasp as he heard this. "It will degrade my higher reasoning functions until my intelligence is no greater than that of an average human or persocom."

"Kotoko, that's crazy! You can't do that!" Kojima shouted, shocked that his wife would consider such a thing.

"Excuse me?" She replied, slightly angry. "I can do anything I want when it comes to my own body and mind. It's my decision to make, not yours."

"That may be so," Kojima replied, trying to put on a calm facade, "but you obviously want my input on this decision, or else you would have done it already without talking to me about it first."

Kotoko smiled and let out a slight laugh. "I guess you're right, Koji. But I still think this is the best thing to do. Besides, I would think you would be happy - you'll finally be a bigger computer expert than your wife."

Kojima didn't laugh at this joke, but continued to stare at Kotoko solemnly.

"If you do this to yourself, you'll be removing what makes you such a unique individual," he said, pleading with her.

"I'll still be the same person, with the same personality," she countered. "I just won't be able to solve equations in seconds that have puzzled mathematicians for centuries, or draw out blueprints in an evening for technology that only previously existed on _Star Trek_." She looked at Kojima again, but his expression was as serious as before - her attempts to defuse the situation with humor apparently weren't that effective.

"What about all the good things you've contributed so far?" He pressed on. "There's so much more you can do to help the world, but you're going to throw it all away because you're afraid of what you might become some day?"

"I've done a lot already... the people of Earth should be okay from here on without my assistance."

"Yes, but you don't know what might happen in the future! There could be a nuclear war, or an asteroid could hit, or aliens could invade-"

Kotoko couldn't help bursting out in a fit of giggling at Kojima's fanciful scenarios.

"You really need to stop watching so many movies, Koji," she said, still laughing.

"Goddammit Kotoko, this is serious!" He yelled, pulling her out of her mirth. "We need you."

"But... what if I lose myself? Let my intelligence and ego overtake my conscience?" She looked down at the floor, sadly.

"Then maybe you could use another conscience."

"What?" She said, looking up, not quite comprehending his meaning.

"Personally I think your worries are completely unfounded, but if you ever go too far and start becoming the kind of tyrant you're afraid of, I promise I'll let you know, and we can overcome it together. After all, you trust me to tell you the truth, don't you?"

"Koji...I..." she smiled, reassured by her husband's obvious care and devotion. "I think that could work," she said, as she kissed him on the lips.

* * *

><p>When they finished, Kotoko got up and headed towards the lab. "I need to recharge. Benji should be finishing his own recharge cycle in just a few minutes, so be ready to spend some time with him if he wants."<p>

"Got it," her husband replied. "In fact, just the other day I was teaching him how to jury-rig a wireless internet adapter from old cell phone parts. We can probably get back on that."

"You and your weird hobbies," the purple-haired girl replied, chuckling. Kojima then turned back to Kotoko and addressed her in a serious tone of voice again.

"You think we're going to turn out okay together?" He asked. She grinned back at him.

"Yeah, I do."

**Author's note: Well, that's it. Over 7 months and 60,000 words since I started, my longest fanfic yet. Even though it's over now, please leave reviews, I would love to hear more feedback, as well as suggestions on anything I could have done differently/better. Also keep an eye out for the prequel I'll be writing soon.**


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